


Carry on my Wayward Sisters

by Hibashira



Category: Supernatural
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:22:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 23,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28384710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hibashira/pseuds/Hibashira
Summary: "Jody Mills and her foster daughters are trying to carry on. To keep living. And to keep hunting. Until a weird case lends on Claire's lap."My own Wayward Sisters spin-of! With blackjack and hookers. Literally ! Short story ( 25K words), takes place during Supernatural's last episode.
Kudos: 1





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A/N : Hey guys ! That Supernatural ending hit us hard, didn't it? I was disappointed not to get a chance to see the girls again, so why not make it myself. This whole fanfic takes place AFTER the brother's "final hunt"(So i guess we can call it S15E19.5 ?). Rated M, just in case, and One-Shot, so far. Maybe will do more, later =)
> 
> A/N2 : If you are not yet familiar with my work, please note that english is NOT my mothertongue, and that this fic is unbeta'ed. So please excuse the mistakes you might find (but feel free to report them to me =) )

**Carry on my Wayward Sisters**

There were days where Jody Mills didn't know what was the hardest. Was it being a Sheriff? Being a part-time Hunter? Or being the adoptive mother of four hunting young women?

Right now, it felt like a bit of the first and the last. To be honest, she hadn't hunted herself for a while now.

She looked up from her computer, and sighed heavily. In front of her, sitting in the chair, both legs resting on the left armchair, Claire Novak was chewing bubble-gum. Her hair were still stained with blood, some splashes were still drying on her face. Her clothes were dirty, messy, blood covered as well. But at least, it didn't seem to be her own, for once, and she was smiling.

"How stupid did those vamps have to be" she asked, "to come and settle 10 miles from here? You would think that, you know, words would get around, in the monster circles, that there's a hunter base nearby, before planning a bloody romantic escapade, right?"

"I don't know, Claire" lamented Jody, "but for the love of Jack, could you please at least stop by the house to shower before showing up to the precinct? If anyone sees you covered in blood and brains, they're gonna start asking question I don't want to answer!"

"Relax, Jody! Nobody's there, it's past midnight! There's only you to keep writing reports or whatever paperwork that late... Besides, I would have, but Alex has her date at the house. Would have been weird walking in on them in "blood and brains"."

Jody stopped typing.

"She what?!"

"Well, you know, she knew you were working late, that I was out hunting, and Patience was fine staying in her room pretending she didn't exist, so, well, why not?"

"Because I told you girls hundreds of time! No dates at home! At least not without warning me! Dammit, imagine if he stumbled on the weapon stash? Researches? "

"Chill, Mommy! She ain't gonna have sex in your bed, if it's what worries you!"

Jody buried her face in her hands, both exhausted but also slightly amused.

"You know very well that it's not it. I know you're all old enough, and I insisted enough on protection to know you all understood it! I can't believe you girls went along with it, behind my back! Sometimes I regret the times you could barely tolerate each other..."

"What do you want, old woman, your teachings got through to us!"

"Insolent brat", Jody chuckled. Claire had that way of turning anger into laughs. Or laughs into anger, when she wanted.

She resume her writing. Only a couple of more lines needed, then she was done for the night...

"By the way" cut the blondie, once again, "Did you receive any news from Sam?"

Something twisted inside her guts, like a cold metal fist.

"No, not yet" she whispered, trying to keep her mind away from the thoughts and memories.

* * *

Three months had gone by since Dean Winchester had passed. Three months since the day Sam, crying his soul out, called her to share the terrible news. The shock had left her speechless, to her knees on the floor of her kitchen. She had cared for Dean Winchester so much, so damn much, and her heart broke so violently that she thought she heard it. To think that Sam went through the Hunter Burial, and set his brother's corpse ablaze, all on his own, had ripped her apart. Still did. Why hadn't he called? Why did he ignore her right to say goodbye? The girl's right? All three of the owed their lives to Dean, and she had to tell them that he was gone, and that none of them would be able to say some last words.

That evening, they all drank some of his favourite beer, in silence, as a gesture of remembrance. No way that good looking bastard would ever be forgotten.

Jody had insisted, begged even, for Sam Winchester to come and join them, not to stay alone in painful times, but he had refused. Said he needed to be alone for a while. And after that, radio silence. Jody had feared he had done something stupid, maybe even killed himself, but just a week prior, during a friendly call with Donna, her friend had informed her that she had recently sent a case toward Sam, and he took it. Or so it seemed. So maybe that was a step in the good direction.

She owed him, and his late brother, so much. They gave their lives for the world, more than once, went to Hell and back, literally! They gave her a life, a purpose, and four beautiful, annoying, challenging, smart, extraordinary foster daughters. And as proof of her gratitude, she could not even say goodbye to Dean, not even help Sam during one of his most painful time. That pill was hard to swallow, even after weeks of self-convincing.

She looked back into Claire's eyes.

* * *

Claire had tried to keep her most natural tone, but she knew her voice had trembled at the mention of Sam. The passing of Dean had hit everyone hard, and the one of Castiel had left her in a state of incertitude. She couldn't make up her mind about what to feel about it. It was a mix of hate, regret, pain, relief and sadness. All she wanted to do was to try at keeping things as normal as they used to be, at least normal for her. Maybe this way, things would be just a bit less hard.

Focus on the Hunt, she kept thinking, focus on the Hunt. As long as she was keeping moving forward, killing things and saving people, she would be okay. That's what Dean would have wanted anyway.

"I have a new lead" she said, dreading the reaction of her foster mother. But Jody didn't even look up.

"Let me finish this, please. I'm almost done, and I wanna go home. I'm tired."

"Did you even hear what I said?"

"Nope! Your tiny squeaky voice was covered by the sound of my rumbling stomach."

Claire sighed and waited. She wanted a shower...

"You'll tell me again in the car" added Jody.

So yeah she would.

The trip home was short anyway, barely ten minutes by car. Sioux Falls wasn't the biggest place of America.

"I have a new lead. A new case, I think" she repeated.

"What? Again? But I thought things quieted down since... You know. Jack did his thing."

"So did I but, maybe that was the the calm after the storm. Monsters crawling out of their nests now that the big boss left the place. But I'm not completely sure, and I wanted Sam's advice. I dunno, I thought that maybe he would like to join me..."

"I thought you didn't want anyone babysitting you? In your own words."

"Come on, you know it's not about me. I just thought that maybe... It would do him some good, ya know? If I lost you or Alex, I know he would do the same for me and..."

She stopped, suddenly horrified by what she had just say, and the memories it might bring back.

"I know what you mean. You're a good kid, Claire. Annoying, stubborn and without a shred of respect for your elders, but a good kid. But first, have some rest. It's late and I don't want you to get in trouble because you're too tired to watch you back. We'll call him tomorrow, see what he thinks."

Claire didn't respond, just nodded. She was indeed very tired, almost already asleep against the vibrating window of the old sheriff car.

"What is this case by the way?" asked Jody.

"Honestly... I have no idea."

* * *

The smell of pancakes and bacon. Could it be anything other than the greatest thing in the Creation, ever? Would there ever be a better way to wake up? Claire doubted so, but the morning pleasure was quickly shut down by two things.

The first was the sound of Jody and Alex arguing in the kitchen. The second was the empty space next to her. She sighed, tried to keep the pain aching her heart in check.

Barely dressed up, she joined the girls in the living room, yawning and stumbling.

"I would expect something like that from Claire, but not from you!" attacked Jody.

"Leave me out of it..." she mumble, hardly awake.

Patience chuckled.

"Morning, Claire. How was your hunt?" she asked, joyfull.

"Bloody... Easy."

In her back, while she seated, Alex apologized.

"Look, I'll say it again, I'm sorry. I wasn't planning to, we just decided it on the spot. I even called Patience ahead just to be sure. I didn't think I was doing anything wrong. And anyway I'm 23, not 14! I'm allowed to have a goddamn boyfriend!"

Jody lowered her head. Why does everything have to be so difficult?

"I know you are, and yes you do. I didn't set those rules just to annoy you! It's for everyone's safety. I'm not even forbidding you to bring him home ! Just to plan ahead to avoid bad surprises! Like Claire coming back covered in blood !"

"Pleeease, leave me out of it..."

Alex sat down without any comeback. The girls knew she was just fighting back on principle anyway, but she knew she screwed up and was sorry. She wouldn't have baked breakfast herself otherwise. At least not so early. Hopeful, Claire glanced at Patience, her mouth full of maple-syruped pancake.

"Any news from Kaia..?" she dared asking.

Patience stopped for a second, then just shook her head, apologetic. The pity in her eyes made Claire sick, but she knew she didn't mean it that way. She was just as sad as her.

Roughly six or seven months ago, while the Winchester brothers were still busy with Chuck-God ending world after world, Jody and them had managed to bring Kaia back, the real Kaia, the one they all thought was dead and gone. Claire had done so much work on herself to try and accept her death, to lock her feelings for the Dreamwalker in a box, and to move one.  
And there she was back. Alive. Scared, traumatized, thin as a twig, so weak she could have broken a bone while lying in bed, but alive. Claire's love for her had reignited tenfold, but mixed with a terrible fear that something worse would happen, and a vicious anger against herself for not having try harder to save her sooner, so she wouldn't have spent years in that nightmarish place.

But she tried her best. She really did. Tried hard not to smother her, overprotect her, not to keep her locked in her arms. To keep things as usual, back to normal. But it didn't work. Everyday, Kaia seemed to lock herself a bit more in her own world, putting more and more distance between herself and the girls, and it got twice worse after Sam's terrible call. Until one day, almost three weeks ago, she declared that she needed some time alone. "To breath, and found herself back", she claimed. Then she just took of, with a duffel bag and a cellphone.

She kept texting Jody every two days, with nothing more than an "I'm OK" content, and occasionally, Patience, with a bit more detail of her whereabouts. Last they knew, she was somewhere around Los Angeles. That was a week before, and Claire was so hurt that she was left completely ignored. Not that she would show it, of course, but Patience knew better.

"She'll come back."she said softly.

"Yeah, whatever. So Alex! How was the date?"

The brunette looked up from her plate, slightly surprised, as Claire and her were hardly the closest ones of this patched-up family.

"Hum.. Well I guess. Matt's a sweet guy."

"There was an usual smell in my room. You didn't do it in my bed, did ya?"

Patience almost choked on her pancake, and Jody lowered her head with a desperation facepalm.

"No we did not! I'm not that kind of girl, I'd AT LEAST wait for second date to soil your sheets. Are you sure it's not some leftover of your werewolf senses that are imagining things?"

 _Well_ , thought Jody, _at least Claire and Alex beckering at each others is as close to normal as we'll ever be..._

* * *

" So what's that case?" Finally asked Jody, once Alex had left for her shift at the hospital.

" A new case, again?" wondered Patience, raising her head from her book.

"Yes again. So listen, I saw this article, two days ago. A town called Pierre, Hughes County, South Dakota. Barely 3 hours from here. Four people went missing in the area in the last year. They didn't really put two and two together until the body of the third one showed up. Turned out he had hit the jackpot at the local casino a couple of days before going missing."

"And the others?" Jody's voice was intrigued.

"Still MIA, as far as I know."

"And you think this is a case because...?"

"Because the body was completely bloodless and brainless. _Drained to the last drop and lightheaded_ , the article says. I swear, some people's sense of humour is worth jail time..."

Jody chuckled, despite her growing worries. She really didn't like Claire going alone.

"Indeed, that sounds like something worth checking. Vampires again, you think?"

"I'm not sure. Keeping brains ain't really part of their mojo, but maybe it's just a sick psycho who likes to collect. I'll see when I get there."

"You sure you don't want to rest a couple of days first? You just came back..."

" I barely had any case in the past four months. Having a couple in a row can't be that bad. If I spent more time resting than hunting, I'll get rusty before I hit 30. I'm good Jody. I had a nice sleep, and nice breakfast, I'll take a nice lunch, and then I'll get a nice hunt!"

"Alright, alright! Sorry I asked."

"You want a partner for this one? " rose Patience's voice behind her back.

Claire turned around, surprised. Patience hadn't hunt for almost a year now.

"You sure? I thought this Rugaru case last year scared you off this life for good!"

"Well, that was just temporary. And I'm getting bored to death here, there's no way I'm gonna get another bartending gig anytime soon, with this stupid pandemic. Jack really could have added a little tweak here and here, before going to wherever. I have a feeling that you might need someone to watch your back on this one."

"A vision?" asked Jody, suddenly very worried.

The last time Patience had a vision, it was in the middle of the night. She woke up crying, blabbering about someone getting his heart broken in the middle of a barn, blood on the wood, scared children and an old shield breaking in two. The next morning, they had received the terrible call from Sam Winchester and since then, the future had remain quiet.

"No" she answered with a smile. "Just a manner of speaking. So? Mind if I tag along?"

Claire just smiled back.

"Well you know the drill" gave up the sheriff. "A report every night, and if you miss a single one, I send the cavalry."

"Yes, I know!" complained the blondie.

"I'm gonna pack my bag!"said Patience, cheerfully, as she rushed back into her bedroom.

"She seems unusually happy about this hunt, doesn't she?" wondered Claire.

" Maybe she's just looking forward spending time with you? She's been very alone here since... Well since Kaia's not here."

The girl decided to ignore the sting in her heart.

"Naaah, must be something else. Maybe she got a deal with Alex to leave the house for her and her boyfriend when you're gone!"

She took off quickly before the joke landed on her foster mother.

"Wait... What? Claire! Come back here!"

* * *

"So, how do you wanna do this?" asked the psychic.

Claire's old rusty Ford was parked a hundred meters from the coroner's office. The drive had taken indeed three good hours, quiet, peaceful, during which they shared few words, but much more song lyrics as they sang along a couple of old rock classic. Even though it was not really Patience's forte, who was more of a soul and R&B fan, and that Claire would never admit that Dean's influence on her music taste was bigger than he had imagined, those songs and those moments were some of the best they had had for months. Maybe years. Good enough for both of them to wonder why they didn't do it more often.

"Well, I go in there, and I'm not coming out until they let me examine the body. And you, well, I guess you can go find us a motel and wait for me and start some researches while waiting for me. Then we'll inspect the place where the body was found."

"You kidding? i'm going with you!"

"Nah. If I'm alone I got some easier lies to sell. Plus, I thought dead bodies were not you're thing. You sure you wanna inspect a drained and brainless corpse?"

Patience pouted.

"Touche. Alright, give me the keys. I'll find something without too much bedbugs and text you the address. Don't take too long, night will fall soon."

After rumbling through the trunk to change into her "FBI clothes", she slammed it to signal her partner she was free to go. The outfit was simple, really, white shirt, black tie, cheap blazer. It looked weird on her, too big, as if she had stolen that from her father's wardrobe, but it was already hard enough to make people believe she was law enforcement without looking like a punk teen out for a concert.

It did not miss. As soon as she stepped into the precinct, she was welcome by the usual question.

"Aren't you a bit young to be FBI, agent Morgan?"

The lady was 60 something. Probably should have retired already, if she could afford it. Warm smile, though a bit fake. Claire had developed her own strategy to make people uncomfortable.

"I know I look young, but I got out of the academy a year ago. I was supposed to be here with my partner, or should I said mentor, but he died two weeks ago. Gunned down by a drug gang when he was out for dinner with his wife. The Bureau assigned me a new partner, but I have order to start the investigation while waiting for him. Should be there in a day or two."

"Oh sweetie, I'm so sorry. To lose a partner so young... And just two weeks ago? I can't begin to imagine what you're going through..."

Claire just raised her shoulders.

"We never really got a chance to get close, so, you know. But I'd like to be prepared for when my new boss arrives, so if you don't mind pointing me to the coroner's office..."

"Sure thing, love. Third door on the right, get down the stairs, then it's first on your left. Can't miss it. He should still be there. I'll let the sheriff know you're here when his back from his patrol."

"Thank you, Ma'am. Much appreciated. Here's my card, if you or he wishes to contact me".

Directions were clear enough, and the office indeed unmissable, as the door was facing the morgue. She knocked.

The coroner was a tall African-American, blessed by Chuck with broad shoulders and a devastating smile. He looked young too, barely even 30 years old.

"Hello", she said without a smile. "Coroner? I'm agent Morgan. FBI. I'm here about the body of the jackpot winner. The one without blood."

The man's smile faded.

"Yeah I know what body you're talking about. Hard to forget, if you ask me. But I didn't know the FBI was getting involved, the sheriff didn't warn me."

"Well, if this guy's is the first of four missing men, then we can fear the three others turning the same way, which would mean that we'd be dealing with a very, very twisted serial killer. So the Bureau tries to get ahead, and here I am."

"A twisted serial killer, and they send the tiniest, youngest recruit they have?"

Claire gave him her meanest look.

"Instead of being disrespectful and risking me making a report about your desobligeant behaviour, why don't you show me the body and your files?"

He looked scared for a second, then found his smile back.

"You're right, Ma'am, my apologies. Follow me."

He led her to the room on the other side of the hallway, where the empty tables of steel where shining under the lights, and opened the first slot of the body fridge.

He unveiled the deceased, and while Claire lean forward to inspect closer the skin, he handed her the file.

"Joe Rogans. 36. He was found buried in the woods, after a jogger with his dog found him. The body wasn't buried deep enough, and the dog started digging. The guy's never gonna run in these woods again, I'm telling you, he got scared out of his life. Anyway, I've never seen anything like this" he claimed. "Really."

The lack of blood had turned the man into a mummy without bandages, white as Death itself. A hole had been made in the back his skull, round as a tennis ball and twice bigger.

"The body was drained of almost 70% of its blood. I found two needle-sized holes, one on each arm, so my guess is that he was drained using a perfusion, while he was alive. Now, the problem is that I cannot say for sure what the cause of death is."

"What d'you mean?" she asked, raising her nose from the notes.

"Well, if you look at the decoloration here" he said, pointing at the cuts on the skull "You'll notice these red-ish patterns. What it means is that the brain was still irrigated when the skull got cracked open."

"The killer removed his brain while he was still alive?"

She felt sick.

"Maybe. I cannot be sure, that's what I say on the next page. Either that, and then the killer kept draining blood until almost nothing was left, OR, he drained the blood until this poor man died, then removed his brain just a few seconds after the passing. Like it was important that both were done at the same time. But I cannot really say which one was first. Especially since, the only thing I'm sure of, is that poor Joe here was dead long before losing 70% of his blood. Which means the killer kept draining him after his death, which his much, much harder without a heart beating and pumping the blood through the veins, you see?"

"So he starting draining him, killed him, then kept draining with a much more complicated way, until it got too hard, and then got rid of the body?"

"Pretty much yeah. I can't make any sense of it, for the life of me."

"What do we know about this guy, except this?"

"The sheriff could tell you more about it, but from what I picked up, he was not from around. No close family that we know of, he was just going through town for work, stopped at the casino for the night, got lucky, and disappeared shortly after. It's his employer who reported him missing when he never showed up to the client's for the meeting."

"So no enemies in the area."

"Not likely, as far as I know."

"Okay I see. Last question. According to your report, it's said he was declared missing five months ago. But here you say that he's been dead for a week or two, estimation being harder due to the lack of blood. Meaning that he had been kept alive for months?"

"That's possible. At least the maths would tend to agree with this theory, but I have another."

"Do you, now?"

"My guess is that, after hitting the jackpot, he decided that the job was not worth it anymore. Decided to leave without a word with the pactol and live the high life for a while. Then bragged about it to the wrong person, and got himself killed."

"Unlikely", answered the fake agent.

"Why so?"

"Because then why would he turn up in the same town he went missing from, and not in Cancun?"

The coroner didn't answer.

* * *

The motel Patience had found was nicer than what Claire was used to. Can't say it was fancy, for sure, but at least it was not the literal cheapest of the whole state. She got worried for a bit that the fake cards would be denied, but her friend quickly reassured her.

"They didn't even look at me when I paid. The dude was too busy watching Netflix and didn't want me to bother. Like he didn't know that he could pause it... Anyway, i got something!"

Claire smiled. She was glad to see the psychic so active and involved after being quite down since she's the bar she was working at closed, but even glader that she didn't have to do all the preliminary researches herself. Spending hours on the PC sitting on shitty bed was not her favourite part of the job. Patience looked so excited she didn't even asked what Claire had found herself.

"So" she started to explain. "The first one missing was Matthew White. Just 30 years old, from North Dakota, two hours away from here. Consultant in human resources. He was in town for a client, for two days. All fresh and good for the first one, never showed up for the second. Client figured it might have been a mistake, until the employer said he actually never came back the next monday, and reported him missing. The second man is Thomas McCallister. Only 25, he was in town with his rock band on tour. He's the bass player. According the the papers, they arrived early in town before the night's show. The boy said he'd go out for an hour, have a walk, and never made it back for the concert. You'll notice that The Ravens still managed to play without him though. They thought he was drunk somewhere in a ditch, but they reported him missing after 48 hours without hearing from him. Now, third one, Joe Rogans. 36, salesman. From what I could find, he was also here for work, although I'm not sure if he was staying here and just stopping on his way to somewhere else. Too late to contact the employer today, but I can do it tomorrow if we need. He's the guy you saw at the morgue, I supposed.. And then the last one. This one is interesting because he, is also a she."

Claire raised an eyebrow while sipping down her beer.

"Elliot Shane. Also known as Clara Thompson. He's what we call a drag-queen, and a quite famous one at that, at least according to his website. He's a "high-end escort girl", for the ones into this kind of kink. Travels the whole country for his clients. Turns out he was in town for a lady who always dreamt of having sex with a shemale... While her husband filmed."

"How the hell did you get that kind of details, for heaven's sake?"

"It's all in the police reports. That's the statement of the ones who reported them missing."

"How did you get those statements?"

Patience shrugged.

"Sam showed me how to hack into police database, last year... After the Rugaru case... So I could keep helping you from time to time. But anyway! He met the couple at the restaurant at lunch, so they'd get to know each other before.. You know. He was supposed to get pretty and meet them at their place in the evening, but he did not. Never made it there. The lady went reporting him right away."

"And the cops took the statement? Just for a missed appointment?"

"They're a big deal around, it seems. Big money, lots of contribution... Not someone they'd dismiss that easily."

Claire sipped once more. The bottle was almost already finished.

"So what's the exact disappearance timeline?"

"Matthew, 13 months ago, roughly. Thomas, nine months ago. Joe, five months, and Elliot last week. So, one every four months or so it seems."

"Hum. The coroner said that Joe died just weeks ago, so many months after going missing. So by the look of it, the monster feed on them for a while, kills them for some reasons after 4 months, then gets out to fetch a new snack."

"You think it only feeds every seasons?"

"I'm not sure. The coroner said that a huge part of the blood was drained post-mortem, which was overly convoluted because it would be much easier to do with a beating heart. So I'd tend to think that it stacks up. Keep some stock, and need to refill every four months when there's nothing left."

"Well that's kind of scary."

"What annoys me more is that I have absolutely no idea what kind of creature does that. I mean I supposed it's feeding on both blood and brains, but maybe it's something completely different. Some rituals, maybe?"

Patience got up from her seat and started walking around.

"We know all victims were male, are least biologically, under 40, and just passing by. What about a succubus, or something alike? Maybe it's posing as a prostitute to lure its victims? That would be fitting the storyline, I supposed. It's common practice among nomad profession, especially with single men."

"Could be, yeah, although that fits way less for the last vic. I can't really imagine why a travesti escort would hire a hooker. And I have no idea how to kill a succubus, so I kinda hope you're wrong about this one."

"I guess we'll have to figure it out tomorrow. It's late, and we won't get much more tonight."

"Agreed. How about some pizza?"

* * *

"You alright, sheriff?"

Jody took her hands off her face. She didn't really know why she was feeling so tired. Maybe it was the poor night she had, with Patience and Claire out, despite the reassuring text they had sent around midnight.

She had shared breakfast this morning with Alex, who was definitely a nicer kid when Claire was not around to tease her up. She could not say if the two "sisters" loved to hate each other, or hated to love each other so much. Either way, none of it explained why she was feeling so exhausted. She looked at her deputy. The young man hadn't been here for a while, he wasn't quite used to see her like that.

"I'm alright, Jeff. Thanks. Just a bad sleep night. Anything new on the robbery?"

"Nothing so far. My guess is that whoever did this is long gone. None of the usual reseller seems to have seen anything, no matter the threats."

The woman sighed. Things have been quiet, since the whole Chuck/Jack incident. She didn't know if the kid had anything to do with it, but she had much less work since. The problem, however, is that anything that came her way felt harder to solve than before. As if the smart criminals were the only ones left.

Her phone rang. She took a couple of seconds before looking at it, to check the number, but when she did, she regretted having taken those seconds. Kaia. She never called, just texted, usually. Her heart skipped a beat.

"Kaia? Kaia is that you?"

"Jody? Jody, I need help. Please."

Her voice was shaky, as if she was holding back tears. Or panic. Maybe both. Her heart now completely froze in her chest.

"Kaia. What's going on? Tell me!"

"I don't know Jody. He's dead! There's blood everywhere. I got blood on my hands, Jody. What do I do? What do I do?"

Jesus, could it be any worse?

"Kaia, listen to me. Listen to me!" Her deputy looked over at her, worried, but she ignored it. "Take a deep breath. One , Two, breathe. Okay, good, good. Now tell me where you are."

"Sterling, Colorado. In a motel room, but I don't know where exactly. I don't know how I got here, Jody."

"Alright keep breathing, you're doing good. What do you remember?"

"Not much. I arrived in town yesterday morning. Just walked around for the day. Then I was in a bar, last night. Some dude tried to buy me a drink. And then.. and then I don't know. I just woke up in here, and there's this guy on the bed. He's got no more teeth, Jody! His face is covered in blood, I got some on my hands, I don't know how. He's not breathing, I'm sure he's dead."

"Alright listen to me. Here's what you're going to do. As soon as we hang up, you're calling the police. You tell them exactly what you said to me, and then you stay here! Just step outside the door if you wish but don't leave. That would only make things worse. You're a victim here, so let's not give them any reason to think otherwise. You call them, and you tell them. They will ask you to follow them, and you will. Stay at the station. I'm on my way, I'll be here by nightfall."

"Okay... Okay Jody. Please come quick, I don't know what happened..."

"I'm on my way. Hang on, kid".

Jody was already out putting her jacket on by the time she hang up. Her deputy followed her outside, rushing in her steps.

"What's going on? Where are you going?"

"Onf of my daughters need my help. You're in charge here, Jeff. Keep the house 'til I'm back."

Her engine roared, and she was gone.

The road was often a good friend to the sheriff, but not that day. That day it felt like an enemy, a wall to climb over in a race against time. She drove above the speed limit most of the time, not hesitating to turn the siren on when need, but despite it all, the night had fallen by the time she knocked on Sterling's sheriff office. The door opened to a young man from the night shift, looking annoyed out of his life. Jody was sure he was about to give her some "What dya want?" when he noticed her outfit.

"Sheriff Mills?" he asked.

She nodded.

"Kaia is here?"

"She is, Ma'am. She told us you'd be coming. Please, come in, don't stay outside. The girl is waiting for you in cell 3.'

"Kaia is WHERE?!"

* * *

"Agent Morgan?" said a male voice that she didn't recognize.

It was early enough to make Claire groan of annoyance, the phone had rung for long enough to dragged her out of bed.

"Sheriff Sheppard here. Rosie gave me your card yesterday, after you came by the office. I'm sorry to call you before breakfast, agent... But the digging crew came through. We got two more bodies. I'm on my way there, and I sure as hell would love to get your help on this one."

"Got it, sheriff. Just text me the location." Then she turned to her sister still in bed and pushed her. "Get up you slime. We got work to do."

"Damit, I forgot about that part of the job... please tell me we'll stop for breakfast."

"I'll get you a donut. If you behave."

Patience drew her first smile of the day.

They had to take the car for barely three minutes to get out of town, but then walked almost twenty to reach the GPS coordinates the sheriff had sent. When he saw them coming, he raised an eyebrow.

Sheppard was a rather small man, with a round-shaped head that would make you think he was overweight without actually being so. He hadn't shaved for a few days, maybe a week, and it looked like he hadn't slept since Michael Jackson was still alive.

"Which one of you is agent Morgan?" he hailed them.

Displeased by the tone of his voice, and by how tired she felt, Claire just slightly raised one finger.

"Then that should make you the S.O we were expecting?" he asked, facing Patience. "Was expecting someone else, to be honest."

Not sure if he was referring to her age or the colour of her skin, she showed him her most glacial face.

"Means I'm just that good. Agent Rebecca Parker." She extended her hand, which he shook politely, and before he could open his mouth again, she pushed forward. "Let me guess. Thomas McCallister and Matthew White?"

Grateful to the masterful way Patience had played along her cover, Claire had ignored the sheriff to go straight to the only face she recognized. The coroner, addressing her a polite nod, answered to her ' _supervising officer_ '.

"Can't say for sure without comparing the dental records at the office, but it does preliminary inspection seems to match their size and age. I'll notify you as soon as I'm sure."

Claire knelt toward the skeletons. Their bones were dusty and muddy, cleared from all flesh but still wrapped in rags that used to be their clothes. The bodies had been taken out of the 6 feet graves that lied two steps behind, between the roots of a large oak. She knelt, looking a closer look at the skulls.

"Same M.O?"

"Well obviously", chuckled the coroner "I can't say for blood draining. But both skulls have been cracked open just like Joe Rogan, so I'd give it a strong _probably_."

Patience turned back to the sheriff.

"You mentioned a digging crew to agent Morgan. Did something like that happen before? Were you expecting to find other bodies?".

Sheppard shrugged.

"Not really. Just a gut feeling, with all the disappearances, you know. We're quiet people here in Sterling. Worst I had in twenty years as a sheriff were a couple of suicides and one attempted robbery. Serial killers are above my paygrade, so I'm glad for the FBI taking over."

Patience looked around.

"Where's the third grave? Joe Rogan's?"

He pointed at the oak.

"Just on the other side of the three. Roots are thicker on that side, maybe why the body wasn't buried so deep. You can't see it from here, but take five steps to your right and you will. Not far enough to categorize this as a different site."

"Anything else?"

He shook his head, annoyed almost.

"Nah. We let Max, our coroner here, do his job and take the bodies out of the graves. Haven't touched anything else, we were waiting for you guys, sorry, ladies, to arrive."

Something was itching Patience to set this man on fire, but Claire interrupted her thoughts. She raised her voice, pointing something in one of the grave.

"I see something down there. Max, give me some gloves and help me down."

The man obeyed.

Deep in the dirt, trying to avoid the couple of bugs here and there, the blondie bent over to pick up something half buried in the dust.

"A token of hundred dollars. From the Aces High Casino."

"That's the same casino Joe Rogans won the jackpot!"

Patience smiled.

"Then we have a new link between our victims. Alright, Morgan, get out of this hole. Let the guys do their work. We have a casino to hit!"

Walking back to their car, ignoring the mumbles of the sheriff, Patience leaned toward her sister and whispered.

"Supervising officer, uh?"

"Shut up. It's just because you look old."

* * *

Aces High was much shaddier than the girls would expect. It's not like they spent much time in casinos, or expected some Las Vegas superstar hotel, but still, this back alley, red-bricked, graffitied building felt like it should have been abandoned years ago. Only the door looked clean, which was probably the purpose. They had waited for the place to open, breakfast time was much too early for a small night-life place. But before lunch the doors would open, and a couple of hours later there would be some players. Hopefully.

Patience looked at Claire, skeptical.

"Well now I'm questioning how big this jackpot was... How do you want to play it?"

The youngest thought about it for a second.

"You go ahead without me" she finally said. "If we both go as FBI agent, we're toasted. So you go in as Agent Palmer, and I will come in 5 minutes later to play a bit. Look around as a customer, you know."

"You got any money?"

Claire stuffed her hands in her pocket, took out a couple of bills.

"Not much, but that should be enough for some low stake poker, I supposed".

Patience nodded and took a step forward, before turning her back.

"Actually, maybe you should go first. Observe reactions around when an FBI agent starts asking questions?"

Claire sighed with a smile.

"You're the boss, Agent Palmer."

"Attagirl!"

Claire stepped inside, surprised by the cold of the AC hitting her in the face when the outside's breeze was already fresh enough. The interior was much better looking that the outside, but smaller than she expected. There was only a dozen of slots machine, bright and flashing lights everywhere with the most appealing and fantasy names they could find. On the left was the only Roulette of the room and by its side, three tables for card playing, with only one very bored-looking croupier. She looked around, counting the number of people. Four employees, she could see, for barely six player, all of them male, none of them under 40 years old. Keeping an eye on the room would be easy enough. She headed toward the croupier, where she'd had the best view on everyone.

"You guys play poker around here?" she asked.

"Sorry, Miss. Only Friday and Saturday evening."

"What's your deal then?"

"Blackjack, Miss, of course. Would you be interested."

"Small stakes alright? I only got a hundred."

"I'd even say, small stakes only here, hundred could last you a while, If Lady Luck's with you. You know the rules?"

"Course I do. Deal me in."

Without a single smile, the young man started beating the cards. He was tall, pale, with broad shoulders and a slightly crooked nose, maybe hinting to a tendency for bar fights. Claire played a few hands, seriously, while waiting for Patience to make her entrance.

When she did, she made sure to talk as loud as she could without sounding like she was a yelling cartoon character.

"Agent Palmer, FBI. I'm investigation a possible murder. Who's the person in charge here?"

An employee pointer her toward the cash-in desk were an older lady was writing something inside a book. She barely raised her chin when Patience walked up to her, like she hadn't heard her, but Claire was 100% sure that the croupier did, considering how much paler he became and how the cards froze in his hands.

"Well that's an early jackpot" thought Claire.

"Hello" opened Patience to the manager through the glass. "Agent Palmer. I have some questions about a young man that seems to have come here before disappearing."

Finally she looked up.

"That Joe Rogans guy? I already told the cops all I knew. And the reporters. It wasn't even that much of a jackpot, just the biggest one from the smallest machine. 5 grands Nothing worth killing other."

"Not Joe Rogans. Thomas McCallister."

She took out her phone to show her the report's picture. Suddenly, the woman was interested. Scared.

"Wait" she said. "Another one?"

"Hum Hum."

"Lemme look at him again. Yeah I remember him! Hard not to, he was bragging about being a rockstar. Lost all he had in an hour, which was not much, but still left the place very much healthy. He even had that pretty girl Eliza at his arm!"

Patience's interest spiked, especially when she noticed the woman suddenly looking awkward, like she had said too much.

"Eliza?"

"Yeah She... Listen, I don't want to create any trouble, she's a sweet girl. She euhm... What you'd call a _street professional_. Some of those girls hang around here. We have kind of a deal. We let them hunt for clients, and in return they _incline_ them to drink a couple of extra whiskeys. Win-Win, you know?"

"Relax, I ain't here for some girls trying to make a living. But I need to talk with that Eliza, if she's the last one to have seen him alive."

"Sadly I can't help you here... She usually pops up once every now and then. I haven't seen her for a week at least."

"Nobody here got her contact?"

"Sadly no.. But try coming back tomorrow. The owner will be there. He's out of town right now but said he'd be back for tomorrow's game. He might know more."

"Alright, will do then. Thanks for your help. Oh by the way, before I leave, another question. Any chance that Joe Rogans also left with Eliza?"

"No he did not, of that I'm sure... But she was here that night. She left earlier than him, with another man, that's why I'm sure. But I can't say if he left with another one or not."

"Another one? You got many of those girls?"

"More than I'd like to admit, for sure, sadly. There's not much job around here, specially these days..."

"Alright. Thanks for your help, Madam. Maybe I'll see you tomorrow then."

"Have a good day agent. If I can be of any help, feel free to come back."

Patience walked out, without a single look for Claire. Barely a minute after, the croupier hailed the young woman after a pretty good hand.

"I'm sorry miss. Do you mind if I take a minute?"

"Sure man. Take your time."

Following him to the toilets was surprisingly easy for her, but she had become pretty good at that exercice. Hidden around the corner, she heard him clearly.

"The bloody FBI ! Asking questions about you! That's trouble, I'm telling you! What do we do? No, I don't know. No. She said she'd be back tomorrow to talk with the boss. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Alright see you tomorrow then. Be careful."

He hung up, and Claire rushed back to the table, to play a few more extra dollars out.

* * *

Looking at Kaia, Jody thought it might not be as bad as she thought. The girl looked fine, not malnourished nor sleep-deprived. She was even peacefully sleeping on the uncomfortable bench the cell considered a bed.

"Kaia"? she gently called.

The brunette jolted up from her bench. Not sleeping so peacefully after all.

"Jody! Thank god you're here!"

Jody winced involuntarily at the mention of Chuck, but she shrugged it off to focus on her _daughter_.

"How are you holding up? What are you doing in the cell?"

Grabbing the bars, Kaia lowered her head for a second, but when it rose back up it wore no pain nor sadness. Just a tired smile.

"I did as you said. Called 911, stayed at the motel, waited for them to show up. They treated me well, you know. Even brought me a burger. But they said they did not want to let me go just yet and asked me to stay here."

"Asked you? Did they charge you with anything?"

"Nope. The sheriff said I could go if I wanted, as long as I did not leave town in any case, but that it would make things much easier for everybody if I stayed there. Also I didn't really know where to go, and I'm kind of short on cash for another motel, so... I figured you'd have an easier time finding me in here."

"But why are you locked up in the cell then?"

"I'm not."

Kaia just pushed the bars and the gate opened. It wasn't locked. Jody laughed with relieve and hugger her tight.

'You brat! I was so worried about you!"

Kaia returned the embrace with an unexpected strength. It lasted for a good while until the deputy hailed them.

"Sheriff Mills? Sheriff Maxwell is on her way back here, she'll be here in a couple of minutes. Can I offer some coffee in the meantime?"

Jody graciously accepted, and sat with Kaia in her cell. She didn't want to lean on the tragedy of the day, they would do that soon enough when this Maxwell would be there, so she asked her what she's been doing so far. Which was not much but walking, hitchhiking, working some 1-day-gigs to get some spare change, and drinking in bars ( that last part, Jody could understand, but she was still quite worried about it), until the ring of the door pulled them out of the discussion.

Sarah Maxwell was a tall women, looking quite young (barely over 30 maybe?), with long dark hair braided and tied into a ponytail. Her dark skin highlighted a small scar on her forehead, and Jody thought that, for a woman of color that young to already be sheriff, she probably was one hell of a badass. But the best of the first impression was not this, but the warmth of her smile when she saw Jody. She instantly felt like the sheriff was a woman who cared. Who put people before the book. One of the good ones.

They shook hands firmly and went into Maxwell's office, shortly followed by Kaia.

"Any news?" asked she youngest.

"Not yet. It will have to wait for tomorrow."

Jody raised they eyebrows, ready to ask what it was about, but Maxwell stopped her with a raise of the palm of her hand.

"Let me explain and start from the beginning. Actually, let me start by thanking you for doing the right thing and telling Kaia to call us. I know how easy it would have been to panic and just run away, but you presenting yourself was of a big help. Now here's the situation. Kaia claims that she has no recollection of the previous night, not coming to the hotel with the victim. I tend to believe her, but we have a drug test currently going on to see if she has been drugged, which would explain things. And would also not be a first in town, sadly. We're expecting the results by tomorrow. That's also why I insisted on having Kaia staying here, because I believe that if she's indeed being set-up, she might be in danger. And well, if she's actually a really gifted liar and she did kill the guy, I'd rather prefer not to have to chase after her."

Jody would have protested, but Kaia's nod changed her mind. She was right, she knew it.

"What do you mean, not a first time?" she asked instead.

"We've been having some reports of GHB being used in the region over the pasts months. It's also the third man in less than a year found dead with his head bashed in, and even if I don't have a single proof, my guts tell me it's related."

"How so?" wondered Kaia, interested but also relieved to maybe not be at the center of the story.

"All of the victims had a record. Bad boys bikers kind of guys, running around with a finger in every bad things that happen around here. No big fishes, but no angels as well."

"But why leave Kaia alive, then?"

That was not a question Jody really wanted answered, but as a cop herself, it was stronger than her.

"I don't know" admitted her peer. That's a first, which means it's also my hope to make some progress in this case. Kaia might be a suspect right now, but I believe that she's much more of a witness. Hopefully we'll clear that out tomorrow. Now Kaia, I know we've been over it once, but let's do it again for Sheriff Mills. Maybe something new will pop-up. Can you please walk us through the events of yesterday?"

The young woman took a deep breath, and told her story. She had spent the day walking around, searching for a bar that might have a gig for her, without success. As she was running low on cash, she thought it might be time to go home, and decided to have a drink and some fries in a small rocker bar. She had just finished her first beer when a short bearded guy came to her and hit on her with some cheesy pick-up lines straight out of some 80's bad movies. She rejected him politely, he insisted. She declined again, and when he finally took the hint, he bought her an extra beer as an apology for wasting her time, before leaving. After that, nothing. Just waking up in the motel covered in blood.

"Wait" said the sheriff. "You didn't tell me that he offered you a beer, only that you rejected him."

"Yeah, I didn't think much about it. I mean, it came straight from the bartender, so I don't see how he could have drugged it..."

"Or the bartender is accomplice."

This idea hit Kaia like a punch in the guts.

"Fuck... We need to talk to the bartender."

"I need to talk to him. You're civilian, remember, kiddo? But yes, I agree. In the meantime..."

She took turned the computer screen over to Kaia, displaying a man on a mugshot.

"Is this the guy who hit on you?"

"Yes. 100%. He's the vic?"

The sheriff nodded, and looked at her wristwatch.

"Let's continue this tomorrow. We all need rest. Sheriff Mills, do you have a place to stay?"

"Do you mind if I borrow your cell number 2?"

Sarah Maxwell smiled.

"Had a feeling you'd say that. Sure, go ahead. We'll bring you some blankets. "

Within ten minutes, she had left the precinct, leaving the deputy in charge. Lying on the hard bench, Jody tried to remember the last time she had to sleep in a cell. It had been a while. When she thought that Kaia had finally fell asleep, she heard her voice rise in the silence.

"Jody... How are the others doing?"

"The girls are all doing fine. They worried about you. But we're good. We're good."

And, after an obvious hesitation.

"And Claire...?"

Jody just smiled.

* * *

Morning came fast, way to fast for Jody to feel rested. Her back hurt. Maybe she was indeed getting too old to sleep on a bench. At least some coffee was already prepared, judging by the smell of it. Kaia was still asleep in the next cell, so she got up silently.

The young deputy was gone, already replaced by the day-shift deputy. This one was the complete opposite : old enough to be retired, completely bald, with at least 30 extra kilos.

"Oh, good morning, miss!" he exclaimed. "I hope we did not wake you up!"

"No worries, I did not hear you. Is that coffee I smell?"

"Sure is! Still hot. Want a cup?"

"More like a dozen", she mumbled.

He laughed and served her. It felt good through her body. After chatting a bit with the guy, she asked when she sheriff was due to arrive.

"No idea. She was supposed to be there already, but she texted me. Something came up, so she went straight where she was needed. I can call her, if you want?"

Jody declined. She knew what the job was like. Instead she asked where she could go buy a sandwich for breakfast.

It was almost eleven when Sarah Maxwell barged in. Kaia and Jody had already devoured their meal, and were now slowly getting bored.

"You sure she was there all night?" Asked the lady to her phone.

Jody could not hear what was the answer, nor to whom she was speaking. She witnessed her frowning her brows, and hang up with an annoyed sigh.

"What's going on?" she asked. "Some new problems?"

"You betcha. Come with me. Kaia too."

She dragged them back to her office, without the smile she had worn the previous night.

"I got the results from the lab. You were indeed drugged, Kaia."

A mix of relieved and anger flow in Jody's vein. If she got her hands on the bartender, or whoever put that shit in her daughter's system, she would feed it to a bloody Leviathan!

Sarah Maxwell plugged an USB key into her computer, and declared.

"I was called early this morning. The bartender was killed last night."

That, she did not expect. She didn't know what to say, but the woman was not done.

"He was killed in front of the bar after he closed it, around 2am during the night. I was just there, and the owner showed me the CCTV footage."

She turned the screen toward Jody and the girl. They could clearly see a silhouette rushing toward the man leaving the bar, in his back, and smack his head four times with what looked like a crowbar.

Then, the silhouette turned back, showing her front to the camera. Despite the black and white, poor quality of the image, the identity of the murderer was unmistakable.

"So, Kaia, tell me. Would you happen to have a twin sister, by any chance?"


	2. Chapter 2

_Hey Sam. Tried to call again, need your help with my case. 3 victims + 1 missing, blood drained to the last drop and brain removed. There's nothing in my books about anything like it. Tell me what you think._

Claire still hesitated after reading the text three times. Not for proofreading for sure, but to see if anything could trigger any pain in her friend's heart. But at some point, you gotta press send. So she did. Hopefully she could get some answer, because Patience and her had spend hours in every book she had in the back of her trunk and every lore they could find on the internet, but nothing seemed to match what they got so far.

She was fairly bored, and all the recon she had done during the afternoon and evening had led to nothing. The only thing left was to wait for the next day and hope the casino's owner could point them to Eliza.

The croupier was also a good lead, Claire and Patience both thought that he was in on it. She had tailed him when he left the casino at the end of his shift, around 6pm and taken of couple of pictures. He was not a shapeshifter, at least that was clear, and he just went to his boring single guy apartment. The psychic's theory was that he was charmed by whatever monster they were facing into helping it. That also seemed to fit the _femme fatale_ vibe they were having with these stories of casino and hookers. Wasted time, all of it.

The plan for the next day was simple. Patience would go in to meet the owner, and Claire would stay outside, hidden. Since the croupier made a call about some FBI agents, Claire's best guest is that whoever was on the other line might show up to take a look. Patience would be safe in there, will all the public and cameras, but outside she might be easier to get. And therefore, a better bait.

Not that she liked the idea of course. But it had been Patience's, and she had to admit, it was a good one.

She went to bed with a dozen of plans and ideas in her head, and twice as many fears. Her last thought of the night was for Kaia. Where the hell was she...?

* * *

Patience stepped into the room. It was already the second time this day, as the boss had not been there earlier. The cashier just told her to come by again by 8pm, and so she did. Another wasted day, they thought, but that night, something was about to happen, she knew it. Felt it in her soul.

There was much, much more people that the day before. The hour, probably, but still. People were waiting at the bar, all machines were taken, some were yelling at the blackjack table.

"How the hell does a casino like that attract so many people in such a small town" she thought.

She tried to navigate between businessmen with their drinks, rambling old ladies pestering about a bad night, two pretty women in short outfits and many others, to finally reach the main office. All this crowd made her feel inadequate. Too young to be FBI, too ignorant of the world to be FBI, too woman to be FBI. Let alone a hunter. Stop. She shook her head, hoping to get rid of the doubts with it. Somehow, it worked. A bit. She took a short breath and knocked three times on the door, hard.

"Come in!"

How could a man fit so much the _cliché_ of his own profession? It that guy had been a plumber, she would have found him wearing a red hat and shirt with a blue overalls. This one probably thought he was some Al Capone of the countryside. Dressed in a black suit to tight for his prominent belly, a blood-red shirt tucked in his pants and a fake gold watch at his wrist, he looked at Patience from below, most of his face covered by a borsalino on his head.

"Yeah?"

"Agent Palmer, FBI. I tried to get to talk to you a couple of times, maybe you've heard?"

She expected him to go all macho bullshit, playing the big guy, but he actually completely lost his persona and became white. Pale as Death itself.

"Oh yeah! FBI! Right, right come in! Take a seat! Jacob Bor at your service. What can I do for you, Agent Palmer?"

"Oh, you, you have something to hide", she thought with a smile.

She sat down as offered, and took her phone of of her pocket. One by one, she showed the pictures of the four missing men.

"Any of them look familiar to you?"

He looked closer, took the phone out of her hands without asking and swipe a couple of time.

"Yeah, this one from the newspaper. He's the guy who went missing some months ago and who showed up dead. They said he had earnt the jackpot, but honestly, that was the lowest stake machine, so it was barely noticeable. Nothing worth shooting a guy, I'd say. The three others, not really no. But I don't mingle with players anymore, you know, Agent? That's why I hired managers, so I don't have to deal with this crap. Now I'm more managing the paperwork, the administrative, and all, you see?"

"But they've been here?"

"I can't say, really. If my guys on the front can't answer you, neither can I."

"We could look at the CCTV?"

"And go over a year worth of video? Sorry miss. Unless you have some warrant to take them back with you, I ain't spending the next months watching those. I'm all for supporting and aiding the Law, but I got some limits."

"Alright then. So if you're more into the administrative business, maybe you can help me with this. I'm searching for one of the regular girl. Eliza?"

"What do you mean, regular girl?"

"Prostitute."

Bor tried to presented a deeply offended face, but for a casino owner, cards were probably not his strong suit. His poker face was worse than a toddler.

"Agent! We don't do that here! We're a respectable establishment, and..."

Agent Palmer was tired of the bullshit, even though Patience was having way too much fun. She got up, leaned forward with both her hands on the massive wooden table, and tried to take a strong, confident voice.

"Cut the crap, Bor, you're the worst bluffer I've ever seen. I'm not here to look at your book accounts and report you to the IRS, the CIA or whatever agency you're screwing over. All I want is to find whoever took and kill those guys. It's not you, is it?"

"What? No!"

"Then help me out, and I'm out of your hair. Or whatever your hide under that hat."

Jacob Bor had hold his breath for a while now and was turning from pale to red. Until he exhaled and and finally decided to lowered his head, speaking with a much more normal, lower voice, like he had finally dropped the act.

"Alright. Eliza you said? Yeah I know who she is. She's impossible to miss and forget anyway."

"Would you happen to have her contact information?"

He stood up and went to the door.

"I'll do you one better. She's here tonight."

He opened the door and screamed.

"Jonathan! Bring Eliza over here! Yeah right now!"

Then closed the door back and looked at Patience.

"She'll be here in a minute."

And indeed she was.

For a good half-minute, the young woman stared at the hooker with her mouth slightly opened, even though Claire was usually the one appreciating female beauty. Eliza was wearing a short, tight red dress, revealing a good portion of her perfect breasts and long, Victoria's Secret shaped, legs. Her face looked smooth as silk, framed by long hair, darker than the night. The flashy red of her lipstick was not colorful enough to hide the absolute green of her eyes. She was also one of the tallest woman she had ever seen.

"Yes? You asked for me?"

Her voice sounded smoother than her perfect skin. For Patience, it was crystal clear : she could not be human. No human would be so perfect.

"Yes dear", answered Jacob. "This FBI agent would like to ask you a couple of questions, about the man they recently found dead."

"Would you mind lending us your office for a minute, Mr Bor?" finally asked the hunter, gathering her spirit.

Without a word, but a long look to the hooker's cleavage, he stepped out and closed behind him.

"So, miss Eliza" started Patience. "It's just gonna take a few minutes. Do you remember this man, Joe Rogans?"

She looked at the phone.

"Yes of course. The newspaper."

"And from before?"

"Yes. I had forgotten about him until I saw the article and the news on TV. He hired me for a couple of hours, after winning a bit of cash. We left the place together that night."

"Which means you're the last person to see him alive."

"Guess so."

"Where did you go?"

"I have a deal with a hotel a couple of streets from here. I always bring my clients there."

"How much did he paid you?"

"300 for two hours. The usual tarif. I had hope that he would be generous with his earnings, but he was a rather cheap bastard. Why, you interested?"

Patience feared that she might have blushed, against her will.

"Offering those kind of services to an FBI Agent might be a bit bold. Don't you think?"

The woman just shrugged.

"When did he leave?"

"I don't remember. Somewhere around midnight, I guess? It was too late for me to find another client. He just left and he was very much alive at that moment."

"Did he mention anything? Any problems, where he would go?"

"Nothing. He just fucked me for half and hour and just lied down caressing my tits for all the remaining time. Barely said a word. Far from being my worst, or weirdest client, to be honest. I'm sorry but I really don't have anything that could help you. For me he was just a regular guy."

Patience looked disappointed. But she knew, something was wrong. Eliza remembered too clearly something that happened months go, for just two hours. She didn't seem to care at all, when the hunter figured that prostitute would usually be stressed out by speaking to law enforcement. Even more when one of their client turns up dead.

"Hum that's unfortunate. Where can I find you, if I have more questions?"

"Unless you have a warrant, you don't."

Patience was taken aback by the violence in her tone. An aggressivity that hadn't shown so far. She decided not to push.

"Alright then. Thank you very much for your help. Before you leave, here's my card. Just in case you remember anything."

Putting the card in her purse without even looking at it, Eliza stood up and left, never looking back.

"So you come just to see me, and you got nothing to ask?" thought Patience in her head. "I'm kinda disappointed."

* * *

Claire hated the stakeouts. It was by far the worst part of the job, worse than having to clean blood-covered clothes. But knowing Patience was inside made it much more stressing. Hiding in her car, she was at least two hundred meters aways from the entrance, and needed her binoculars to keep a good look at the door through the darkness.

When her partner finally stepped out, it was only 10pm, although she felt so tired it could have been 4am just as much. With the zoom, she could clearly see Patience smile and wink at her.

She did not walk toward the car, just like they had planned. She did not walk in direction of the motel neither, that would have been stupid. She walked toward the sheriff station instead. It was just a general direction, as it was at least twenty minutes away walking, but it was the smartest path if she wanted to be the bait. While planning, the girls had marked a couple of dead-end streets where they could ambush and corner whatever monster would have taken the bait.

It didn't take a minute before the big fish jumped out of the waters : as soon as Patience had walked past the street corner, Eliza was getting out as well. Claire hadn't seen her before, but she still had no doubt about her identity. Smoking hot like that, dressed to kill, and clearly chasing her partner, she had to be their target. Their prey. The lamb who believed to be a wolf.

As soon as Claire believed the distance to be long enough, she stepped out and followed them. The trick was to be far enough not to raise any suspicions, but close enough to help Patience as soon as she'd need it.

She was focused on her target, determined, and confident. The feeling of her Colt .45 tucked in her belt behind her back was comforting, but the holster for the army knife at her ankle felt slightly loose, which annoyed her. It should not fall, but still. She should have checked it out sooner.

She was so focused that she didn't see them coming. The four of them. Their were just hanging out, couple of beers and a bottle of cheap bourbon laid on the edge of the store's window. The had no reason to see them coming, expect that they did.

"Hoy sweetie, where are you going?! Come here, stay with us for a bit! Have a drink!"

Claire sighed. How the hell those fuckers let the beautiful woman in short dress pass by, but would decide to bother her instead. At the worst time possible!

"Sorry boys, not tonight."

She had tried to remain friendly, avoid the confrontation and move fast, but they were faster, and already surrounding her.

"Move away. Now!"

The tallest one, the leader who had spoken before, put a hand on her shoulder. There was a huge gold ring on his finger, and he was missing a front teeth. Claire didn't have any time to lose with them.

She drew her Colt faster than a lighting would hit the ground and stuck it right underneath his jaw.

"Move the fuck away." She repeated in a growl.

All blood had left his face, and sweat had appeared just as fast.

"Wow! No need to..."

Before he could end his sentence, three gunshots and a scream tore the sky.

"Fuck! PATIENCE!"

Claire ran.

* * *

Patience was crashed into a bin, barely moving. Some filth had fallen over her, covering half her face and making a mess of her hair. When Claire arrived, her heart stopped in her chest.

"PATIENCE!"

"Fuck..." she groaned, trying in vain to pull herself out of the trash. "That bitch..."

"Oh shit Patience!" yelled Claire as she ran toward her to help. "You scared the hell out of me!"

"Where the hell were you... You were supposed to have my back."

Her voice was not carrying the tone of blame, it was just an annoyed statement.

"I know I'm sorry! I got delayed by some wankers... What happened here?"

"Eliza. She cornered me. Attacked so fast I could barely see her. Just got enough time to shoot from the purse."

Claire looked over from the handbag, torn and smoking, holes ripped out of it.

"You got her?"

"Hit all three rounds yeah. I'm pretty sure one hit the head or the throat. She's hurt, but not dead. Pushed me over like I was a twig and jump over this wall..."

The darkened bricked wall was over two meters tall, and clearly unclimbable. A single jump over it would never be possible for a human.

"Do you get a look at her? What she is?"

Patience nodded.

"Long teeth, and weird eyes. Looked like a cat. Or a snake."

"Golden?"

"Nah. Green or blue, I think. She was very, very fast, Claire, I didn't stop to take a selfie with her!"

Claire sighed and tried to hide her disappointment.

"Alright. Plan B then. I go back in, keep an eye on the card dealer. If you just shot her partner, she might try to contact him, warn him. Let me just swing by the car to change."

"Yeah, and I need a shower...", complained her partner, sniffing the sleeve of her jacket.

On the way back to the car, noticing that the four bastards were now gone, Claire texted to Sam, again.

_Also has long fangs and blue (or green) snake eyes. Jumped over a 8 feet wall. Bullets just pissed it off._

By the time she was getting her nicest dress from the back of her trunk, her phone pinged back.

_Sounds like a Vetala. Silver knife to the heart. Careful, might hunt in pair._

_-S_

Well at least he was alive... But he could have called! She was more disappointed than relieved, but at the very least, they had a proper lead on their target. She showed the text to Patience.

"Well" she said "Now I know what to search for. What's with the dress, by the way? Trying to hook up tonight?"

"Shut up!" she snarled back, trying to smooth the shiny red fabric over to make it slightly longer on her thighs. "Have you seen the people walking in tonight? All shiny dressed up and shit. If I go in with my torn jean I'm gonna stand out more than a stripper in the Vatican... "

She was indeed quite seductive, attractive. Her blond hair falling on her shoulders left bare by the dress. Only the faded scars striding her arms still linked her to the life of a hunter.

"You can go back to the motel. Get your shower and some rest. I'll manage from here."

"You sure?"

"Yeah no problems. You did your part tonight. I need to make up for not doing mine. I'll text you if I get anything."

She threw the keys into the hand of her partner and stuffed her Colt in small black purse. Hopefully the bouncer would not search into it, but who would bother such a pretty girl with that? She gently tapped onto the psychic's shoulder, and headed back to the casino without a second look.

* * *

For sure, it felt like a completely different place compared to what it had been the just previous day afternoon. THe number of folks present in here, packing in, choking her with warm air, the music style much more aggressive and loud, the machines beeping and blinking twice more. Or at least it felt like it.

She almost had to fight her way to the blackjack table. The croupier was still here, obviously more focused and busy that the day before. He had 3 players in front of him, one evidently losing all he had left, based on the curses out of his mouth. She just had to wait for a minute before the guy stormed out and she sneaked her was way past on old woman very much unhappy with losing her spot. Net to her, a man well into his sixties seemed to be on a lucky strike, and very much enjoying the company of a pretty asian in a green dress even shorter than hers, sitting on his lap. Another _street professional_ , surely.

"Good evening Miss", greeted the young man. Then recognizing her, "Already back?"

"Well. I won more than I lost yesterday, so why not try my luck again?"

"That's what this place is about!" he smiled, before dealing.

Nothing in his body language seemed to betray any nervousness or anxiety. Claire was pretty sure that he was not aware of what had just happened, but it slightly changed after a couple of hands, when his brows suddenly frowned and he involuntarily put his hand on his pocket. Surely his phone vibrating, thought the young woman. This impression of doubt on his face sticked for a while, even got worse after a moment, until Claire could clearly hear long, uninterrupted buzzing of a call.

Clearly annoyed, or worried, he tried to focus on the game, but even ended up making a mistake and dropping a card at some point.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, please do accept my apologies, but the bank needs to take a quick break. We'll resume in ten minutes. Feel free to enjoy a good whiskey at the bar in the meantime."

Without paying any attention to the protests of the players to this irregular behaviour, he rushed toward the bathroom. The hooker immediately took her night's catch by the end to drag him to the said-bar. And that was Claire's queue.

Following him was even easier, as people provided covers, but listening to his conversation was harder because of the music and the noise. But she still understood enough

"I'm working! ... Can't call me... What? I... Okay. No. Yes I'll tell...Here... Customer.. We can meet tomorr... 10 am. Stay... "

That was enough. Hunt had rarely been so tricky, so... police work, until now. Tailing suspects, listening to conversation, it was far less direct than it usually was to find a damn vampire nest, but then again, if it was indeed a Vetala, she never had faced one. Never too late to learn, right? She still was not found of it. She would have preferred to storm the place, take down the monsters, save the last missing man, and be home by the next day. But things rarely go the way she wished to.

She managed her way back to the motel, paying the taxi with the night's earning. She was actually quite good at playing blackjack.

* * *

For Jody Mills and Sarah Maxwell, finding the shapeshifter had been quite easy. Kaia had stayed in the car, despite her protests. Jody would have taken her on the hunt, but since she had decided not to tell the local sheriff about the supernatural threat just yet, it was much harder to justify bringing her along. Maxwell had been unbendable. Even if Kaia was clearly used as scapegoat, no civil on a case! Jody had insisted enough to bring her with them, as long as she stayed in the car.

Maxwell was still completely lost on how someone could steal the young woman's appearances to commit crimes, but she was hellbent on getting an answer.

A full day of investigation had been more than enough to get a pattern. There was only three bars in town that were favoured by passing bikers and local bands, so it had been rather quick.

All recent victims had been in one or the other, all of them had been seen trying to seduce women in these bars, and there were high suspicions that they were falling back to less honest ways when their charm was not enough to conclude. After being roughed up a bit that the youngest law woman, one of the bartender admitted that he occasionally provided GHB, for quite a high price.

Maxwell would have beaten him to a pulp before bringing him in, and Jody would have let her, if it was not a better plan to use him as bait. The killer had gone for the bartender the night before, it might come back for this one.

And it did.

When it entered the bar, around 8pm, it was clearly for recon, as it would not attack in front of everyone. It was still wearing Kaia's face. Looking at it through her phone, Jody confirmed the glowing eyes and the nature of the threat. She had come here to help Kaia, not to hunt, but it seems the Hunt found her instead. The creature ordered a beer, and sat in silence in a corner. It barely looked away from the bartender, and completely ignored the two sheriffs.

It left just the same, without a word nor a tip on the table, and the women followed.

Maxwell's theory had evolved. At first, she had supposed that it was some drug-related conflict, a battle between gangs for the territory or something, but now she had something else in mind.

"A vigilante" she whispered to Jody. "Targets rapists and their dealers."

For Jody, it would be a first to have a shifter using her powers like that, but well, the world was big, and there was no telling how many changes and tweaks Jack made have made before leaving.

They followed it into a dark empty street, and around a corner, where it just disappeared.

"Fuck!" raged Maxwell. "In here!"

Designating the opened door of a building, she stepped through it without waiting for confirmation.

They entered what look like the abandoned backroom of an clothes store, with rags lying around and headless mannequin casting weird shadow from their flashlights. But searching for their target was really not hard, since it was standing right in from of them, pointing a gun at them.

"What the fuck do you want?" it yelled.

Reacting as she was trained to, Maxwell also raised her gun and screamed :

"Sheriff of Sterling! Drop the gun! Now! Drop it!"

Their screams overlapped, as none them wanted to back down. Her own gun raised, Jody put an extra layer on top.

"Your bullets ain't gonna do a thing, sheriff! But mine will. I'm silver-loaded, Shifter, put down the gun!"

"What the hell are you.." started Maxwell.

"I know who you are, Jody Mills! You'd shot your dear Kaia, Hunter? Lose her once again? "

"You're not my Kaia..." growled Jody.

A dark shape flashed behind the fake young woman, and a loud Bang resonated through the walls. The creature collapsed, unconscious.

"But I am, you bitch!" spat the real one.

* * *

Jody had been a hair away from shooting the unconscious creature in the face, which of course triggered all kind of reactions from Maxwell, one of them being almost shooting her back. So they had to explained everything to her: what this fake Kaia really was and how she managed to steal a face and a voice (not to mention memories), their unofficial work as Hunters, the supernatural beings walking the earth, etc etc.

Of course, the young sheriff believed none of it. So they showed her Jody's pictures on the phone, then Mills took a silver bullet out of her clip, and put it against the creature's skin. The reaction, the skin melting at the touch like it was plastic under red hot iron, finished to convince her.

"I can't believe it", she kept repeating, again and again.

Jody understood. She had been through the same denial when Dean and Sam first introduced into this dark world. And she didn't even got started on the Angels, Demons or Chuck! Probably wouldn't at all.

"You can't kill it. Not yet" she finally ended up saying.

"What the hell d'you mean?" argued Kaia ferocely. "She stole my face. Killed people! If she was living a peaceful life with husband and kids I'd be open to discussion, but this one has tasted blood! And lot of it!"

But Maxwell was already cuffing her arms around a stone pillar of the abandoned facility.

"Maybe, but she took down rapists and drug dealers that I had no idea were even here. I understand that I can't just bring her to the station for questioning, but I still need to know what she knows."

Kaia looked at Jody, her eyes imploring in the dark, but Jody understood Maxwell. She probably would do the same for her town.

"It's late and we need some rest. It's not getting anywhere anytime soon, and I think it will not wake up just now... You you pretty hard, Kaia."

She shrugged. Not harder that usual... Just enough to kill. So probably not even hard enough, considering.

"Here, take the keys and bring the car around", ordered Jody, tossing the keys over. There should be some beef jerky in the glove box too. I'm starving."

Kaia sighed and left, head down, pestering in low voice. But she was completely out of trouble, and it was a relief.

Maxwell tried to carefully slapp the shapeshifter, warry to get a finger bitten off. But it didn't react.

"Yup, completely out... So how does it shed skin, you said?"

Jody had a large collection of gruesome details to share. She quickly looked at her phone, making sure the girl's report was in, and then she started to tell some tales.

* * *

Another stakeout. Third in three days, was it? And even worse, this one had to be started very early, as the sun had barely risen.

Claire had ditched her sexy dress to jump back into her comfy sneakers and jeans, and Patience was buried in a fluffy, hot jacket to keep the morning cold out. They had been waiting in front of the croupier's apartment for a couple of hours already, and went through a good liter of coffee to stay awake. Yes, the meeting was planned at 10, based on what Claire heard, but who know when he'd leave for that. Maybe there was a two hours drive, maybe he'd go for grocery shopping before... They could not afford letting this go one more time, he was their very last lead to get to the female Vetala.

The plan was simple: follow them to the nest. Killing them was only the first part of the business, saving people should not be forgotten, and they needed to know where they were keeping Elliot Shane. That was the upside of being two : if the targets split up, they could follow them both.

Claire was sharpening her silver blades, hiding the knives underneath the steering wheel. She always had two of them, just in case a spare would come in handy, which it absolutely did this time. She would not send Patience out without a proper weapon well taken care of.

While polishing the edge with her pocket stone, her thoughts drifted toward Sam first, and the pinch in her heart when she had read his short text the previous night. She so wanted to do something for him. Anything, and if focusing on a case was it, then she would be fine... But it had felt like he was more or less getting rid of her.

Speaking of getting rid of, this train of sad thoughts obviously went toward Kaia and her unknown whereabouts. Jody had told her that she had been her first love. But how are you supposed to feel when you first love dies, you grieve, finally move on after years of internal pain and torture, and then she pops back up, risen from the grave, weak and wounded, needing you more than ever. How are you supposed to feel when the one you love was getting through hell while you were trying to forget her. Was love re-ignited again, or was is just an insane amount of guilt? Was it why she left? Because she couldn't understand what to make with Claire's unclear feelings? Was it resentment for abandoning her? Was that first kiss, on her bed while she was fighting of a nightmare, a real one, or just a medicine to her distress?

"Claire! Look!"

It was 9.30 to her watch, and the young man had just closed the door of his place behind him.

"Looks like he's going on foot. Let's go."

They tailed him from afar, sometimes walking side by side as friends, sometimes leaving a few meters between each other, to hid themselves in the morning crowd. The man was taking mostly busy streets, making it harder to follow, but easier to hide their presence. They walked for a good while, more than 30 minutes for sure. When he finally entered a side street to then cut across a park, Claire had a bad feeling. The man clearly left the walking path toward the trees, they did their best to keep out of sight. At least, far from the public, it would be easier to hear...

The man finally stopped to meet a hooded figure.

"That's Eliza..." whispered Patience, lying on the ground,dirtying her hands and clothes. Next to her Claire said focused on listening.

"You're late." said the woman with suave voice.

"Made some detours. Didn't want to be followed, if FBI's after you."

"It's not the FBI you nitwit! She's a Hunter! Got three fucking rounds on me, one straight in the head!"

"Shit... You okay?"

"You retard, I'd not be here if I wasn't. How the fuck did she know my name? She asked for me specifically!"

"I didn't say nothing I swear to you! I wouldn't do that to you, you know it! Must have been one of the managers! "

"In any case we'll have to change location, now! We can't hunt at Aces High anymore."

"No please! Don't leave!"

"I don't think we have a choice here, love."

The tone of her voice had changed from anger and threats to seduction. One of her tricks, no doubt.

"We have to stay low for a while, now." She added. " Don't contact me again."

"But how..."

"I'll contact you when things are safe again, for everyone. Let me handle it. Don't call me."

Without leaving him any chance to add anything, she left. He stood there for a moment, dumbstruck, until finally admitting his defeat and turning back.

With a quick head movement, Claire indicated that she'd tail the woman. and the Patience should get the guy. As they expected, they split up too.

* * *

It took only five minutes for Patience to reach the young man. He was waiting in a back alley, far from traffic, pointing his gun at her.

"Don't move!" he cried. "Don't move or I'll shoot!"

His hand was shaking. Patience was even sure that if he indeed shoot, he'd miss her, but she was not willing to take that bet.

"Easy, easy... I'm agent Palmer with the FBI. You don't want to do that... Please put down the gun..."

Her hand was already on the handle of her own gun in her back, tucked inside her belt. She knew she was good shot enough to get him, but not sure she'd manage to draw before he unloads his whole clip.

"You're not FBI! You're a Hunter! She told me! You tried to kill her! She knew you'd come after me too!"

Patience raged inside. She didn't know how, but they walked right into a trap. They know she'd be coming again. Hopefully, Claire was the joker they wouldn't see coming.

"Please, listen to me" she begged. "I can see you're not like her. You're not a monster!"

A Vetala, or whatever he could be, would not use a gun to defend itself. And it would not be that scared of using it.

"Shut up!" he screamed. "Shut..."

She dropped to the floor mid-sentence, taking him by surprise, and pulled her gun.

Three shots tore the sky. Again.

* * *

It took only seven minutes for Claire to find Eliza again. She was standing right in front of her, between two oaks that had been here for probably two centuries. That was probably the most remote location of the park, maybe they were already out of town.

"You're not as sneaky as you think you are, blondie!" teased the Vetala. "You really think I would not smell you at the casino and in the street? I gotta admit, I didn't think you were in on it until last night."

Claire ready her gun, resting her right arm for aim onto her own left wrist, holding her silver knife in this hand.

The Vetala's instinct kicked in, feeling the silver's aura from meters away. It screamed, suddenly showing its true nature. Her long fangs appeared faster than any vampire's teeth would, and her eyes turned into those snake pupils that Patience had seen.

"Seems you don't like what I got for you, you bitch..." she snarled.

She tensed her muscles. Their researches last night, driven by Sam Winchester's information, had revealed that a Vetala only shows it's monstrous self when attacking. She readied herself.

Her phone vibrated in her pocket. She felt it, registered it, but refused to let it distract her. She wouldn't give that freak a free shot.

She heard footsteps behind her. That would not distracted her either.

Something hit her head, hard.

All disappeared in darkness.

* * *

Patience's voice was shaking as she was talking to the phone, while the tone was ringing...

_Please pick up, please pick up..._

Finally, she heard the click on the other side.

"Yeah?"

"Please Alex I need your help. I need you to come right now... Alex, I shot a man. He's bleeding out. I need you Alex."

"Text me the address. You're still in that Pierre town? I'm here in two hours, three tops. In the meantime you need to stop the bleeding. I'll tell you how."

"Alex... I think they got Claire. She's not picking up."

* * *

Thas was one hell of a weird couple of nights for Jody. First, sleeping in a cell (unlocked), at a sheriff station that was not hers. Then, laying in the camp bed she keeps in her trunk, on the floor of an abandoned store, Kaia tucked against her, while a young sheriff she had never met until 48 hours before was keeping watch on a passed-out shapeshifter.

Life had that way of surprising you, even when you thought you've seen and heard it all. But weirdly enough, she felt relaxed enough to fall asleep pretty fast.

It was something like 4 in the morning when Maxwell shook her shoulder to wake her up. She had taken her shift not so long before, so that could not be why she was getting her out of Morpheus's arms.

"She's waking up" she whispered.

She didn't need to keep her voice low, because that was important enough to completely awaken her in a second, and she'd had to wake Kaia too, out of safety.

It still took a good ten extra minute for the shifter to actually be able to keep its eyes open and say coherent words. It was still very disturbing to see it wearing Kaia's face, throwing Jody back to the painful times of "Dark Kaia" and her spear.

"The fuck..." were the creature's first intelligible words.

Jody played with her silver knife not far from its throat, which made Maxwell very much uncomfortable. She was a small town sheriff, not some Guantanamo interrogator. She tried to convey her concerns with a hard look, but Mills was way too much focused on the threat. She tried to forget about the blade.

"Listen, kid" she started, unable to see past the face of the young woman, "I got four bodies under twelves months that spent some times on the morgue's table with their heads looking like used pinatas. I got you for one of them on camera, but I'm guessing the others are also of your own courtesy. So why'd you do it?"

The shifter spat on the floor, though carefully avoiding Maxwell.

"They had it coming." it snarled.

"Drugging girls, am I right?"

The monster looked surprised, like it didn't expect its captive to know and understand. It took a few seconds before lowering its head.

"Yeah..." it whispered. "There's a word in some biker circles that you can find some pills for the right price, and the suppliers would help you find the girls. You know, dodge the local ones, identify the ones that would not be a problem..."

Jody lowered her blade slightly. Maxwell looked at her with a mix of satisfaction and pity in her eyes. They were surprised to get answers to their questions so easily, which only reinforced the feeling that the shifter might not be the monster they thought they'd be hunting. It was making it harder for Jody to be willing to press the trigger. Sarah turned back to the tied up woman.

"How did you find out? "

"Just like that. It's easy for my kind to have ears everywhere. It took me a while to find who it was really, though. Just two low balls motherfuckers in the past year that got away with leaving a girl broken behind. Actually I finally found out thanks to miss Crowbar here."

She pointed chin at Kaia.

"I was in the bar two nights ago. That's where I figured that the bartenders were actually running this thing."

"So you saved Kaia?" gently asked Jody, thinking about the bastard carrying her almost-lifeless body to the motel's bed.

It just shrugged.

"She was a good distraction. He was way too busy trying to get her pants off to hear me coming."

"And you then you left me next to his dead body" spat Kaia, fighting the urge to kick it in the ribs.

"Eh, as I said, you were a good distraction, so I thought to let you keep that role for a bit longer. Just didn't think I'd end up with a Hunter as a face..."

"Yeah, poor choice." Jody's voice was almost apologetic.

"I thought I could use it to my advantage. Obviously, another poor choice" it admitted, looking over her shoulders to her cuffed hands. "But I gotta say, you got the weirdest memories I have ever seen, girl", she added for Kaia. "I could barely understand half of it, what kind of fucked up life d'you have?"

While Kaia was snapping back, not refraining from kicking it in the legs this time, Maxwell dragged Jody by the sleeve a couple of meters away for a more private discussion.

"I can't let you kill her, I'm sorry Jody", she opened. "I don't know much about your world I'll admit, and this girl should be brought to justice for sure, even if she took out nasty bastards... But executing her like that? I'm sorry I can't do that."

"I head you Sarah, I really do. But it's not a girl. Get this out of your head. Shapeshifters are really good at playing on your emotions... That's why they steals faces and memories."

"But she could help me! Us! She must have names! Locations! Probably would also be the best undercover agent the force could ever dreamed of!"

"And you'd control her how? The second she leaves this place, sheriff, she will disappear and you will never see it again. She could be an old man by tomorrow, and the Emperor of freaking Japan next week! I'm telling you, that's the only way to save lives."

"Get a fucking grip", mock Kaia, joining them in the conversation. "It's not some superhero comic kind of shit. She used me, left me to take the blame, and will not hesitate to do it again. Now if that's all you wanted to ask her, I'd like to put a bullet in the head of the thieving snake!"

"Not yet" answered the sheriff. "I need to know if she... Ugh!"

Her sentence was cut short by a steel pipe popping out of her abdomen, spraying blood all around.

"No!" yelled Jody.

She tried to pull her gun, but the shifter swiftly pulled the pipe back, dropped it on the floor and pushed Kaia hard against her, destabilizing them both. The sheriff fired a couple of round, but too late, as it had disappeared behind a door, into the street.

"Fuck! Come back here!" yelle Kaia, trying to rush after it, leaving Jody alone with the wounded sheriff.

Jody kneeled next to her, but she knew it was very bad. The pipe was, irony's sweetest, the very same one Kaia had used to strike her head. Maxwell tried to say something, but only spat a bubble of blood.

"I'm here" said Jody, trying to control her panic. "I'm here. Don't worry you'll be fine! We'll get you out of here, hang on."

Sarah's hand weakened in her grip. Her breath was even shorter.

"Fuck! Fuck!" raged Mills, taking her jacket off to press it against the wound and stop the blood flow. "Kaia come back! Call 911!"

Her eyes looked all over the place, trying to make sense of what had just happened. The cuffs were laying there, unbroken, unopened. It must of slipped out of it, one way or another. She pressed even harder, drawing a groan of pain out of the sheriff.

"Fucking hell!" she screamed. "Kaia!"

Kaia came back, panting.

"I lost her... How is she?"

"She need an hospital, yesterday! Call 911 for god sake!"

"I can't! I don't have my phone... "

"What?"

She couldn't lose time trying to figure out why.

"Take mine. In my pocket, now, hurry!"

She refused to let Sarah's hand go. Her eyes were locked onto Jody's, hardened in a blazing will to live. In her back, Kaia was quickly speaking, or more yelling, at the phone, for an ambulance, describing the place they were and that they had just found the sheriff like that. The ambulance was only ten minutes away, despite the early hour.

So they waited, trying to keep their new friend as stable as possible.

"We need to hunt it down. Fuck..." muttered Jody.

"D'you still have that tracking app on your phone?"

Jody didn't register right away.

"What?"

"The tracking app! Are you still tracking my phone?"

"Hum... Yeah...?"

"I slipped my phone in its jacket while it was out. Just in case, that's why I don't have it. We can track it down if we hurry!"

* * *

When Annie "Alex" Jones barged into the motel's room, she thought she was too late. She had driven much above the speed limit, lucky enough not to have been stopped by the cops at least three times.

The young man was lying down on the bed, sheets now stained in blood on multiple places. He had a rag tightly tied around his right thigh, and another pressed against his right pectoral. The white fabric had turned to red on both places. He was completely spaced out, unconscious, but still breathing.

Patience jumped out of her seat and into her arms, hugging her so tight she felt her back bones crack.

"I'm so glad you're here. I'm so scared I don't know what to do... Jody is not picking up and Claire is still missing. Please help him!"

Overwhelmed by her friend, Alex tried her best to focus on the first matter at hand : the dying man on the bed.

"How did you bring him here?" she asked.

"I didn't have a choice..."muttered the young psychic. "It's not like I could get him in a cab to the hospital. So tied him up, hid him under my jacket and ran to get the car..."

"You left him alone, tied up in the street, after shooting him? Are you crazy?!"

"I didn't have a choice! FBI cover or not, I shot him, and he's our only lead to Claire and the Vetala!"

"You sure he's human?"

"100%. He tried to shot me, not tear me down me claws or fangs. I'm sure he's being used by the Vetala...'

Already acting, pulling off the rags to check the wounds, Alex asked:

"Vetala?"

"Some kind of Hindu snake monsters. Look like some Victoria's Secret model until it drains you of your blood. Or bites your face off, your choice."

"Some men have weird fetishes..."

"To be fair, it only shows its real face when attacking. I think he probably never saw anything but a hottie in short dress."

"Hum... Okay, it looks like the bullet went straight through the shoulder, that's good. I will need to take it out of the leg, though, it looks like it's still here, but didn't seem to have damaged any arteries. He lost a lot of blood, though. Give me my bag."

"Here... Wait, is that a pocket of blood?"

Alex smiled.

"You told me you shot someone, so I came prepared. I'll start with the leg. Here, put this in his mouth. I'm pretty sure this is gonna wake him up..."

Without objections, Patience opened the patient's mouth and stuck the piece of wood between his teeth. Alex sprayed some disinfectant on a bullet extractor. She wished she'd have a more modern bullet puller, but beggars can't be choosers. She wiped it clean, and dived in.

As expected, as soon as the pieces of metal started making a mess inside his flesh, the young man's eyes shot wide open, and a smothered scream rose between the walls.

"Keep him still!" yelled Alex. I almost got it! Almost... There!"

Triumphant, the pulled the ammo out of the legs, blood still dripping. She quickly tossed it aside on the table and pressed a clean bandage on the wound.

"It's okay, it's okay! I got you! It's over, I took it out."

The croupier took a minute calm down. It was hard to say if his restlessness was caused by the pain, or the panic.

"It's alright" continued Alex. "You're safe now. Tell me your name."

He hesitated, so she introduced herself.

"I'm Alex. I'm a nurse. Not a surgeon, so sorry if the operation did not go as smoothly has it could have been, but I think I did pretty good. So, what's your name?"

"Da.. Danny."

"Nice to meet you Danny. Listen, you're not completely out of the woods just yet. None of your wounds are fatal, but you lost a lot of blood. So I will close your wounds. Don't worry, I'm pretty good at it, but it's will be a bit painful. You'll have to take it, do you hear me? "

He nodded, silent tears running on his cheeks.

"Good boy. I have brought some O- for a transfusion afterward. It's not much, but it should be enough to make sure you're safe. Okay? Okay let's do this."

She didn't give him a chance to protest, and started cleaning the needle. Patience had stayed quiet, worried that if she made a single moove, this Danny guy would freak out again. He had registered her presence for sure, maybe just decided to ignore it ... Or he was too fuzzy to understand, maybe.

Alex's movements were confident, quick and precise. She had done it dozens of time already, although it was usually more cuts than bullet wounds. It still took a good ten minute for both wounds to be closed up. Then she set up the blood perfusion. It was just a small emergency pocket she had stolen while leaving the hospital, hopefully not enough to be suspicious.

Danny, panting and dozing in and out of consciousness, managed to thank her before falling back.

"He's sleeping" finally confirmed Alex to Patience once she was done cleaning her equipment.

"We need to wake him up. Make him talk. He knows where the nest is! Claire must be there!"

"He could barely say his own name. Let him rest first. Our sister can take care of herself."

No matter how bad their banters and fights could get, if there's one thing Alex would never deny, it's the strength and resilience of her favourite "enemy". And no matter how much she'd deny it, the pride of thinking herself as Claire's sister was only matched by the gratitude she had toward Jody Mills. Not for one second she thought that Claire could be in a real danger.

"You don't understand", insisted Patience. I have a bad feeling. Something is wrong in this case, since the beginning. Something we're missing, and I can't put my finger on it..."

"Still no visions?"

Patience shook her head. When she first discovered her power, she refused them. Now it scared her not to know why they were gone.

"Claire has been gone for four hours now... Almost five. As far as we know, the Vetala keeps her victims alive for months, slowly draining them of their blood. But there's still one victim that's missing. If it still has it, there's no telling if it needs to keep two... and if it doesn't, who is it gonna get rid of first... We need to act fast, Alex."

"Okay Okay... Listen, I'm starving, I haven't eaten anything since last night."

"Me neither."

"Then rest. Take a shower, you're covered in blood. I'll go get us something to eat, and then we wake him up. Deal?"

Patience sighed.

"Deal."

* * *

When Claire woke up, the pain in the back of her head was blazing. She needed all her strength of will not to puke. She had a concussion, for sure. That would slow her down for a while, she'd had to rest a lot to be at full capacity again.

"Hey! Hey! Blondie! Good, you're finally awake."

"What the hell..."

Her mouth was dry, she needed water.

"Blondie! Hey! Stay with me!"

"Shut up!" she begged.

The sound of his voice made her headache much worse, like a very bad hangover. Her eyes finally acclimated to the very dim light that cracked through the wooden roof. Looked like a shed, or a barn, maybe.

"How long was I out?"

"Several hours" answer the voice. "She brought you before lunch."

It wasn't hard for Claire to recognize Elliot Shane. He looked just like the pictures in the file. He was a pretty boy for sure, but still very much looking like a man, not the drag queen he was supposed to be. Through the fog of her mind, Claire deduced that he probably had been given new clothes since he first was captured. That showed a bit how the captive was treated.

He was locked inside a cage. Not a big one, barely tall enough to stand and large enough for a dirty mattress, but at least he could move.

Herself was tied up to a wood pillar with a tight rope (Again, she thought), sitting on the floor. There was some hay lying around, and a few straws under her butt, so definitely a barn. The rope didn't leave any chance for her to move her hands. She tried to feel if her ankle knife was still there. The holster sure was, but the blade itself she could not confirm.

"You're Elliot Shane?" She asked after a moment.

He looked surprised.

"Yeah! How d'you know? You're police?"

"Something like that" she grunted. "Eliza tied me up?"

"Nah, Eliza barely comes in here. It's the other, Yukiko."

"Yukiko?"

A backdoor open with a loud squeak, interrupting the conversation. She tried to twist her head to see where it was coming from, who it was, but in vain. Some shadows moved around, until finally a woman appeared before her. She immediately recognized her, and cursed herself for falling in the same trap she and Patience and tried to lay.

"You're the hooker with the old man at the blackjack table..."

"And you're the pretty girl who kept winning. If you had less boobs I might have seated on your lap instead."

Her smile was warm, almost honest. She had ditched the arousing green dress for some more casual jeans, and a flannel shirt that looked like it should have belonged to Dean Winchester. An appropriate farm look alright...

"Yukiko, uh? You're a Vetala too?"

The asian girl just smiled and kneeled next to her. Her eyes had the color of an almond, highlighted by a smart makeup and brushed up eyelashes.

"Nah... Vetalas are all looks, and no brain. Don't tell Eliza I said that." She chuckled.

She showed her right hand, and slowly, long, terrifying claws appeared in place of her nails.

"I'm more of a brain type." she added.

Slowly, the pieces fell into place into her mind. She had read something about it.

"You're a Kitsune...?"

"Ooooh well played, little one! Not many Hunters know about us. Well to be honest I don't think we're more than 10 left in the whole continent now, but still!"

"Now I understand why the missing brains. That didn't fit the Vetala's pattern... I assumed it would hunt in pair with another one of its kind."

"Wait what?" screamed Elliot. "Missing brains? What? Yukiko what the fuck! You said you would let me go! Let me go for fuck sake!"

He started shaking the bars of his cage, until she rushed to him, hissing like a feral cat, threatening with her claws and fox-like glowing eyes.

"Look what you've done" she growled. "You scared my meal... I'm on a strict diet, you know! One brain every four months. Sure, I get kinda hungry coming into the third one, but I still had plans to keep dear Elliot here a bit longer. After all, he just joined us. Now, we could keep you both too, but I'm not sure we'll be fine taking this chance... Maybe I can afford a snack, once in a while, don't you think?"

Something was off in the tone of her voice. It didn't sound ironic, mean, or evil. She sounded genuinely annoyed and unsure. Something reminded Claire of a little girl playing with her dolls. Her finger on the chin, she left the room, lost in her thoughts, despite Elliot's screams.

"Fuck! Fuck!" he kept saying.

"What? You thought there were keeping you locked in just for your good company?"

"Of course not! Yukiko told me they needed my blood because they couldn't afford taking her brother to the hospital! Said that they'd have to keep me for a month or two then I'd be out if I swore not to turn them in!"

"And you believed it?"

"Well I was kinda limited in my options, was I not?!"

He seemed more angry at himself than at her.

"When do they come to take you blood?" asked Claire, trying to come up with a plan.

"So far, once every three days. Otherwise, Yukiko brings me a bit of food twice per day. And a bucket of water with clean clothes, once a few days ago, to wash myself."

"And when you need to shit?"

He pointed at a bucket.

"I used some hay to try to contain the smell. Yukiko empties it outside when they come for my blood..."

Claire looked around a bit and tried to think. Her headache was killing her. They would probably not keep them both, it would be too risky to keep them both in the cage, increasing their chances to escape, and she couldn't see any other cell. So they would probably kill one of them. She was the obvious target, the bigger threat, although now that Elliot knew the reason for his captivity, he might try to put on a fight too.

Patience was not here, and Yukiko didn't seem to know about her, which meant she'd still be out, probably looking for her. If, as she believed, the card dealer was just human, he should not be much trouble for the psychic sister, and she should be on her way here.

She did not, however, knew that there was a second monster in the deal. Killing the Vetala, she knew how. But the Kitsune? No clue. She barely knew of their existence from a quick look into John Winchester's journal, and those claws were no joke.

The japanese monster should be back before night for dinner, she thought, if Elliot's information were reliable. That gave her a few hours to find a solution.

First step : check if her knife was still there or not...

* * *

Jody was still boiling inside. The day had turned to shit so quickly, she still haven't found a minute to breathe and digest what had happened. The paramedics had just arrived, didn't even bother talking to them, just urging them to step away so they could take care of the sheriff. She was still very much alive, her resolve stronger than the stones the goddamn pyramids in Egypt. But no matter how strong she was, her loss of blood and injury would have the final word, sooner or later. She let out a whimper of pain when they slowly, carefully moved to her to the stretcher.

The only word they said before closing the doors of the ambulance on her was to get their names, then order them to stay here, as the deputy would arrive in a minute to take their statement.

In a flash, the girls were left alone, in the dark of the abandoned walls, Jody's hands covered in blood.

Finally, she took out her phone and checked the app. The tracker was indeed working, moving across town relatively slowly. It was probably on foot.

"Jody!" yelled Kaia. "We need to go!"

"We can't leave like that! The deputy will arrive soon, if we're not there they will hunt for us instead!"

"Then go! I'll stay! Explain everything! I'll tell him you ran after the suspect as soon as they took the sheriff!"

"You sure?"

"Yeah! Go, now, goddammit!" she yelled.

The foster mother stayed shocked by Kaia's outburst. She never spoke to her like that, especially not since she had returned from the "Dark World". She knew that Kaia had just let her anger at herself take control. Sarah Maxwell had been good to her, that's why she probably hated herself so much for not having noticed the shifter before it took them all by surprise. Kaia knew she should have been much better than that.

"Alright. I'll meet you at the hospital!"

She rushed through the opened door, checking her gun at her belt. She let her engines roar and checked her phone one more time. The dot had finally stopped moving. She smiled, a smile full of hatred and violence. What the shifter had done in twenty minutes, she could do in five with her car, tops. She let the SUV jumped forward through the streets.

She kept a constant eye on the screen, making sure it would not start moving again. It would have been dangerous, but at such an early hour she met almost no traffic, expect an old red sedan that crossed her path dangerously not far from her destination.

She ended up in front an apartment complex that she could have easily confused with a motel, with its inner parking, its rows of doors on two floors, with rusty old barrier on the upper floor. She got out carefully, her gun ready. The app was precise enough to pinpoint the exact room it was in, so she barged in, without a second thoughts, without a doubt, kicking the door down with the force of a titan.

The room was silent. It was rather nice, clear and clean, well-maintained, but smelly. She checked all the rooms, one by one, but she understood quickly. The dresser had been hastily emptied, and the disgusting shed was soiling the floor of the bathroom. The old, blood stained jacket, was resting on the floor, cast out, the treacherous smartphone still inside.

She picked it up, yelled her rage, again, and stormed out.

It could not be far, but where?

"Hey miss!" hailed a raspy voice. She turned around like a spinner, fast enough to broke her spine. "I think you just missed her!"

"What?!"

An old man, lying on the floor in a corner under at least three old and half-destroyed blankets, using a plastic bag as a pillow and a dry bottle of whisky as plush, smiled at her with all his missing teeths.

"The pretty lady with her dark hair. She just left."

The realization just popped into her own brain, out of nowhere.

"Afro-american, braided hairs into a ponytail? Taller than me and half my age?"

"Yeah! That's her!"

"Where did she go? Tell me!"

She was aggressive, much more than she would have like toward this poor man.

"Whoa easy, miss! I don't know! She just jumped into that old red car with a bag and took off!"

The red car! Fucking hell! She had just ran past her. She could have more than 2 minutes of a headstart.

"Thanks!" She yelled, jumping back into her car. She quickly picked a 100 dollars bill out of her wallet and tossed it by the window.

"Sorry, gotta go! Thanks friend!"

She could see the man painfully getting up in her rearview to pick up the bill, then smile of honest joy discoverning amount. She pressed on, pedal to the metal. That was not a race she was willing to lose.

Nevermind the red light, nevermind the speed limit. She was law enforcement after all, so fuck it all. The road was pretty straight forward, with no real chances or reason that the shifter might have taken a side street. It's only after a good minute of racing that she had to make a choice at another red light. Left, or right. 50-50.

Some instincts kicked in. If it was running away, then it would not have taken the road bringing back to downtown. It would have taken the high road to leave the state. So right, it was.

Euphoria replaced anger and stress when she finally saw that red sedan. She drove close enough to see the reflection in the rearview mirror. Their gazes crossed, and it confirmed what she suspected.

That bastard had taken the sheriff's face. She could see the panic in its eyes, despite the speed and the distance between them.

Jody did not hesitate.

The sedan would not match her SUV for a second. A single well-placed hit on the side of the vehicle drove it off the road, in a thunderous symphony of tires screeches and metal collisions.

At such speed, it was hard for Jody to keep control of her own wheels, and she hung on tight, until she finally slowed down safely. Behind her, the car had violently hit a large tree, stopping it dead in its tracks. She could see the bloody face of Sarah Maxwell, injured by the shattered glass of her windshield. She untied her safety belt, and got out of her car, gun loaded in front of her.

Nobody would disturb her out there, at sunrise. Nobody would hear a thing.

The creature looked at her dead in the eyes. It tried to move, get out of the car, but it seemed stuck. Some flames started to lick the metal of the hood. The smoke was already thicker. Jody raised her gun.

"Please." it begged through a cough.

 _Bang_.

* * *

Hours were passing by. She could tell. It was hard to know exactly what time it was, but sun was slowly setting for sure. So maybe 6pm? All Claire had as indication was the light filtering through the cracks in the wood. She guessed the whole place's isolation left a lot to desired, which explain why Elliot had a big blanket on his mattress. She herself was getting colder by the hour. And more and more worried. Where the hell was Patience?!

She had tried to speak with Elliot for a while, and soon she noticed how his persona of Clara Thompson was bleeding through his words and reaction. He seemed like a chill dude, honest and loyal, while she seemed wild, ambitious and confident. Sadly, her head made her suffer much more over the minutes, and she decided she needed to rest. Take the time offered to bring herself back up. She had no knife anyway, and no matter how hard she tried, the knots were too tight for her to move and free herself. She had to wait for an opportunity... If there was ever one.

Where the hell was Patience?!

What if there was a third? Or a fourth? Sam mentioned hunting in pairs, but nothing said it could not be a whole bloody family! Her mind started going wild, to darker and darker places. How could she forget herself if she had gotten her sister killed? What would Jody say to her? After already losing Kaia once because of her? What if she never got a chance to see them again? What if the monsters would bury her body twice deeper than Joe Rogans and Jody would spend the rest of her life wondering where was the little Claire Novak?

"Claire?" gently called Elliot. "You alright girl?"

She grunted. That headache was not getting better.

"My head's killing me. I dunno what she hit me with, but if it's not adamantium I'd be surprised. And vexed"

The young man chuckled.

"They got my Colt and both my knives. My phone too maybe." she changed subjects. "Any idea where they might be?"

"Not a fucking clue. I'd say in the house, but that's all I'd dare guessing."

"House? You saw it?"

"Nah. But Yukiko mentioned it once. Plus, those cooked meals have to come from somewhere right?"

"Yeah true... How did you learn her name?"

"We chatted. She seemed rather nice, despite the whole _I have to keep you locked up to save my loved ones_ kind of thing. I mean... that was before the whole brain-eating shit... And those claws..."

"Sshh" she cut. "I think I hear something".

She focused. Damn be that headache...

Suddenly, a massive explosion fucked up her ears. The walls shook and she thought the roof would fall on her head. Elliot let out a very lady-like scream. She heard screams, and gunshots. The smiles, trying to put aside her fear for her friend. Here was the cavalry.

Suddenly something moved next to Elliot's cage, on the ground. She couldn't see what. Some noises. Elliot panicking. some grunting. Finally, she saw a shape emerging, ramping on the floor in the dirt.

"Dammit" grunted the newcomer. "I thought there was more space..."

"Alex!" screamed Claire as low as possible. "Alex! Here!"

The young nurse had a large knife in her hand.

"Hey sis! Need my help once more?" she teased, already rushing toward her.

"God I'm so glad to see you! Enjoy it, I won't say it a second time! Hurry, cut that rope! I can't move!"

The blade was sharp and effective. A couple of back and forth were enough to lose the restraints, a few more finally freed her for good. Out of pure instinct, Claire jumped into Claire's arms and hugged her, almost impaling herself on the said knife.

"Wo easy, tiger" she chuckled.

"I got a concussion. I'm not responsible for my actions." she smiled.

Then, serious again, the took the knife out of her sister's hands, and Alex did not fight back the slightest. That was her plan from the beginning.

"What took you so long?"

"This place is hard to find, even with directions. That's super remote. Then we had to do some reckon. Prepare some traps. Heads up, Patience used pretty much everything in your trunk. She enjoyed that whole Rambo thing way to much, I believe."

"So those were my grenades."

Alex chuckled with a nod.

"Grenades?" squeaked Elliot.

Reminded of his presence, Claire looked around. She needed to open those chains, or break the cage, whatever was the quickest. She spotted some huge pincers, but Alex stopped her.

"Go" she said. "I'll get him out. You're the fighter, after all."

Claire smiled and tighten her grip on the knife. Outside, another grenade went off. Three other gunshots. She had to hurry.

"Oh!" added Alex, raising her voice higher than she should have. "Sam called us. He had some epiphany. He thinks the Vetala might be paired up with a Kitsune. That would explains the missing brain."

"Yeah, already ahead of you... What I don't know is how to kill that bitch."

"Well I do. Sammy told us to stab it in the heart. Simple."

"Perfect. But I need my silver knife to get the Vetala. Now go!"

She tapped on her shoulder and moved on through the door, trying to ignore the dizzy feeling and the fact that her feet seemed to have troubles getting properly in front of each other.

The door indeed led into a house hallway, with multiple doors on all sides and the entrance door far in front of her. Probably an old farmhouse, like so many lost in the countrysides of the USA. She moved carefully. She heard screams outside.

 _I can't fucking find her_ ! Eliza.

 _Go check the barn!_ Eliza.

 _Okay I'm on it!_ Yukiko.

She needed to be ready. Suddenly, on her left, she noticed the dining room, and all her arsenal lying bare on the table. Her colt. Her knives, including the silver blade. She quickly grabbed them and was tucking her gun back in her belt when she heard a noise behind her.

Instinctively, she did not turn around, but just ducked, and fell the air itself being sliced in two just where her head was. She rolled on the side.

The Kitsune was facing her, hissing, showing the full potential of its fox nature. No doubt she was expecting an easy surprise kill, as was her nature, but Claire's reflexes were trained and sharp. Facing two sets of giant claws, she tensed herself and raised her own two blades. She analysed.

The creature seemed to have attacked with her right arm. It was also the arm she used to show her the claws earlier that day. So that had to be her strongest. If she opened with this one, that would probably be with a large slash to tear her into. She'd used that. If not... she'd dodge backward.

She could think much further. Her opponent launched forward like a missile, and only her hours of training took over. As she had predicted, the fox tried a large hook to her face with her strong arm, on Claire's left. She reacted and used her own right arm to hit straight in the creature's main threat and pinned the palm of its hand with the full length of her blade. Immediately, she ducked to her right, lowering her head and body to dodge the incoming left hand, and in a swift move, stabbed in front of her with her second hand.

Right in the heart.

The whole movement had taken barely a full second, and the Kitsune looked at her pierced chest, surprised beyond word.

She crumbled on the floor, trying to say something in vain, while Claire suddenly felt a sharp pain in her right arm. She looked and finally noticed the blood largely flowing from two deep cuts, one almost to the bone. She winced and fell to one knee.

Adrenaline still rushing through her veins, she knew most of the pain hadn't reached her just yet. She needed to ride that wave while she still could, otherwise Patience would be all alone against a very pissed off Vetala. She dug her blades out of the monster's flesh, and stumbled forward, almost falling again. Hurry...

Another gunshot, louder this time.

Hurry.

Outside, the dim light of the sunset was still almost to much for her. The light hit her eyes with the strength of a thousand sun and blinded her for a second. When it settled, she saw this huge plain field of grasses, and a hundreds meters in front of her, the edge of the woods. Another gunshot exploded just there. She ran, almost falling over.

A shape emerged out of the woods, it's long dark hair dangling in the wind. It was holding its left arm pretty tightly.

Claire drew her own gun and shoot too. She couldn't aim properly for one bit, but it was enough to get the Vetala's attention. The deflagration near her own ears almost made her puke. She could not keep this up much longer. Her left arm was in more and more pain.

"You bitch!" Eliza yelled. She probably understood, by her presence on the blood pouring out of her arm, that she had taken down her partner.

It started running forward to Claire, allowing her to see more clearly her weird eyes and long fangs. A wound on her arm, looking like a nasty burn, was quickly healing itself.

She was getting closer, ignoring Claire's shots. Her eyes filled with hate and anger, it accelerated. Another shot rang, closer to her, feeling like a hammer smashing on her ears and head. The Vetala screamed in pain and fell on the floor, holding it's leg.

Patience appeared out of the woods too, holding the Carabine LR22 that had always stayed in her trunk until now. The young women was panting hard, covered in dirt and mud, but didn't seemed injured.

Eliza tried to get up again, the bad wound in the back of her thigh already closing, so Claire didn't take any chances. One final round was shot, straight between her eyes.

The seductive creature jerked backward with a grunt, her skull resisting the choc, but before it could react, Claire was on her, her silver blade digging deep inside her own heart.

One last twist.

Nothing more.

Claire looked at the body crumbling slowly into dust at her feet, then at her beloved sister.

"Nice shot..." she smiled.

And she fell face front.

All was black and silent again.


	3. Epilogue

When Jody finally woke up, her back was killing her. The hospital chair was really uncomfortable, but well, after barely 2 hours of sleep in 36 hours, she'd take it anyway. She was too old for sleepless nights...

Kaia was snoring the sofa, few feet away from her. She needed the rest too.

She looked over the window, appreciating the sun slowly falling. It was a nice view, this orange light on the roofs of this pretty little town. She knew how to appreciate it after such a hunt, and coming so close to disaster.

They had spent the rest of the day between the hospital and the sheriff station, where the deputy had taken their deposition at lengths, until reports of a road accident but a burnt corpse came in.

He had felt very unpleased with the idea of letting Jody and Kaia go, but just then came the news from the hospital. Sheriff Maxwell was out of the wood. She would have to stay in bed for a while, and would keep some nasty scars, but she'd lived.

From that point, the two Hunters had waited for her to wake up from her surgery, using this time to take a well deserved, long nap themselves.

She looked at the sheriff again, and noticed her eyes.

"You're awake..." she whispered.

"Right back at you" smiled Jody.

"Did you get it?" she asked after a long hesitation.

Jody simply nodded.

"I'm sorry" apologized the sheriff. "It's my fault, I should have listened to you."

"Hey. Stop. I get it, and you shouldn't apologize for wanting to save a life, no matter how evil it could be. It's something this life... just takes away from you. The gray turns into clearer black and white... That's not something I'd wish to anyone."

"Still... I put us all in danger."

"Well, if you truly want to make up for it... There's a road crash case to make go away..."

Maxwell understood.

They kept talking for a bit, quickly joined by Kaia, very glad to see her new friend alive. She even hurt her a bit with an overly intense hug that was very much unlike her.

"Guys, I'm starving" finally declared Jody. "If you don't mind, I'll go get something to eat."

"I'll come with you, Jody" declared Kaia jumped to her feet.

Visit time was almost over, so they said their goodbyes, with a promise to keep in touch.

When Jody stepped out of the hospital for the first time in hours, she turned her cell back on. It suddenly kept ringing and buzzing non stop.

10 missed calls and at least that many texts.

"Fuck..."

* * *

Claire was lying wide awake on the backseat of her old car. The bumps of the road were preventing her from resting, although the sweet roaring of the engine and the chatters of Patience and Alex were strangely soothing her. The psychic was explaining in details everything about the traps they had laid, and her _guerilla warfare_. She was damn proud of herself.

Earlier, Patience had to quickly bury the Kitsune's body in the woods, while nothing was left of the Vetala. Just out of safety, to avoid any unwanted questions, while Alex had taken care of Claire's injuries. She would keep some ugly scars for a while.

Then then had dropped Elliot Shane by the sheriff station.

"If he asks, tell him we've been called in Michigan for some emergency, but I'll send him my report first thing in the morning. And remember, you have no idea where that farm was! You didn't see anyone, we just found you and freed you."

He swore on the name of Clara Thompson that they had nothing the fear. He would have their back, as thanks for saving his pretty butt.

Now, half an hour later, they were on their way back home. To Sioux Falls.

Patience's phone rang, taking her by surprise. She almost jumped. As she was driving, Patience took a quick look at the screen, then tossed it backward to Claire.

"It's for you." she just said.

Still fuzzy, Claire just answered it.

"Go for Claire."

"Hey kid."

Her heart jumped into her chest. For a second, she thought Dean Winchester was on the line. But he was not.

"Hey Sam. Glad to hear you."

"Me too. You got me worried for a moment.I guess that if you're answering, it means you took down the baddies?"

"As always."

"You got my tip on the Kitsune? Was I right?"

"Yeah of course you were. Nice call. I had to find out the hard way, though. But thanks, I had no idea how to kill it."

"Good. I was worried about you, I thought maybe I reacted too late."

"Don't worry Sam. I'm fine. I got out, as always. And you? How are you? Because WE worry about YOU too."

He sighed.

"I'm fine. Sad, and still grieving. Some days are harder than others. But I'm fine."

She hold back a tear. The honest pain in his voice was terrible.

"You know" he added, trying to be more cheerful, "You guys remind me of what Bobby used to tell us."

"Old Bobby Singer?"

"Yeah. _My_ Bobby. He used to say that family don't end with blood. You got something good going on here. Don't forget it."

"I know Sam. We all know."

"Good. Take care of each other."

"See ya, Moose."

She heard him chuckling before hanging up.

"Is he alright?" asked Alex over her seat.

"He will. Just give him time."

She laid back, looking at the roof. Was it how Dean used to feel about his Impala?

She was lost in her thought when Patience's phone rang again.

"Damn, that never stops, tonight..." She muttered. "Go for Claire!"

"Oh my god! Claire! Holy hell I'm so relieved!" exhaled Jody's voice over the phone. "I tried calling you! I saw a dozen of missed calls, I thought the worse!"

"Yeah sorry. I lost my phone."

"The case?"

"Yeah, the case. It was a hard one. But I had some good backup. The best backup. We're heading home right now."

She could hear Jody's relief through the phone once more.

"Alright. You scared the hell outta me."

"Sorry... But I still got a bit of time before report hour!"

"Shut up, kiddo. I got ten missed calls, I panic, that's how it goes. You'll tell me all about it later. We're heading home too."

"We?"

"Yeah, we. Kaia's with me. We also got some stories to tell. She's been asking about you."

 _Jody, please!_ she heard in the background.

She smiled. After all, maybe it was as simple as that. All that was needed, was a bit of time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it! End of the story! 
> 
> I had a lot of fun writing this one, I hope you enjoyed reading it. And I hope I captured the characters and the spirit of the show well enough.
> 
> Feel free to leave a comment on your way out ;)


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